The Quarterly

Volume 1, Number 1

The Jane Jacobs Prize

A the closing of Jane Jacobs: Ideas That Matter, Alan Broadbent announced the establishment of an award in Jane's name, which has been subsequently named The Jane Jacobs Prize.

A network of spotters from arious sectors in Toronto was asked in late 1998 to nominate, confidentially, potential recipients who:

• lived and worked in Toronto;
• are active in their community in some exemplary was (through vocation or avocation);
• were "unsung" - not particularly well known;
• were unually diligent or insightful or creative, and making a contribution to urban life that we could learn from.

In addition to Alan's initial commitment to fund an annual award, a number of other funders contributed to Jane Jacobs Ideas That Matter: 1997 Conference. Further, for this inaugral year a second award was made possible through royalties accrued from the sale of Ideas That Matter: The Worlds of Jane Jacobs (The Ginger Press, 1997), a book published in conjunction with the conference.

Each year recipients of the Jane Jacobs prize will be invited to gather to discuss their experience of the city, to identify what they know works, and what still needs doing.

The Jane Jacobs Prize is based in Toronto.

1999 Jane Jacobs Prize Recipients

Mary Lou Morgan For more than 15 years, Mary Lou Morgan has experimented with new ways to increase access to good, affordable food in a way that empowers and educates individuals. She was one of the founders of The Big Carrot, Canada's largest co-operatively-owned, health food store. In 1992, she put her business savvy to use to create a unique produce and vegetable distribution system for low-income families. Today, The Good Food Box regularly brings fresh fruit and vegetables to more than 4,500 Toronto families and has become a model for more than 30 Ontario communities.

Dan Yashinsky Devoted to the spoken word, Yashinsky has spent more than 20 years collecting and sharing the power of stories with others. He founded Toronto's own Festival of Storytelling, now in its 21st year, and the Storytellers School of Toronto. Dan is a volunteer storyteller at the Hospital for Sick Children. He has traveled to storytelling festivals in New York, Austria, Ireland and Israel, and works with children in schools across Ontario.