The Elevate Prize Foundation will be matching donations to all of the 2025 Top 5 CNN Heroes up to $50,000 per hero.

For more than a decade, Quilen Blackwell has used sustainable agriculture to cultivate opportunities that help residents of Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods blossom. Today, his social enterprise, Southside Blooms, turns vacant lots into eco-friendly flower farms, employing 25 local young people to grow, harvest, arrange, and sell flowers at the group’s nonprofit flower shop.