The Township of Wellesley is contributing $2,000 towards the government of Canada’s Smart Cities Challenge. In a decision approved at Tuesday night’s council, township councillors agreed to support the Region of Waterloo, the tri-city municipalities, and the region’s townships, in a combined bid for the Challenge, which awards prizes of up to $50 million to fund technology-driven initiatives in municipalities.

The region and it’s sub-municipalities are seeking the maximum $50 million grant to support their proposed initiative, which will focus on the wellbeing of children and youth in the community. The region successfully passed the first phase of the Smart Cities Challenge, receiving $250,000 to further develop their idea.

Ultimately, the Region of Waterloo has proposed the creation of a web and mobile application that will link all the disparate community groups and organizations in the region that support children’s wellbeing. The application will allow all these organizations to share data between them and the public, while accounting for privacy issues, allowing the region to create “Canada’s first real-time child and youth wellbeing dashboard.”

The region is also proposing to create technology-based educational programs and promote volunteerism with a “volunteer database.”