Smart Communities

LeadershipPlenty® Now Available for Individuals

The Pew Partnership for Civic Change is proud to announce a new partnership with Virginia Tech to offer LeadershipPlenty® Institutes.  In the past, LeadershipPlenty® was only available via on-site delivery to groups of 20-25 individuals.  Now, thanks to Virginia Tech, we are able to offer the curriculum to individuals this fall at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.

Starting on Monday, November 6th and running until Wednesday, November 8th, is the train-the-trainer session for LeadershipPlenty®, our nationally recognized civic leadership development program. LeadershipPlenty® is designed to equip individuals with problem-solving skills such as building partnerships, managing conflict, and identifying community assets essential for all communities that seek positive change.  The Institute licenses individuals to deliver the nine-module program and equips trainers with the curriculum and web-based support for implementing programs locally.

Over the course of three days and two nights, participants will be trained in the LeadershipPlenty® curriculum by trainers with national, and international, experience.  Once licensed, participants gain access to a suite of curriculum editions including English, Spanish, and low-literacy versions, and evaluation tools that will gauge the impact of this proven program on their community or organization.  For information on availability, pricing, and registration go to the Virginia Tech Continuing Education website.  For more detailed information on expected outcomes, success stories, and the curriculum itself please visit the main LeadershipPlenty® webpage.

New Ways to Engage Diverse Communities

Last Thursday, Virginia Tech and other partners convened a group of over 100 representatives from business, education, the city, and social services to celebrate and plan for the changing demographics of the city and the region. Over the last several years the minority population in Roanoke as grown as it has in most other cities of its size. The city has taken a very active role in addressing and engaging these new residents with a range of special programs.

The conference speakers including Michel Zajur of the Virginia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Edward Murphy of Carilion Health System, School Superintendent Marvin Thompson, Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick, Jr., and Atieno Asiyo, a member of the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Committee. All spoke to the opportunities that exist through a diverse workforce and the importance of diversity to the economy.  Murphy particularly talked about ways that a changing population can strengthen the community's efforts to compete in the global economy. According to Zajur, current Hispanic purchasing power is 8.5 percent of total U.S. purchasing power and Hispanic advertising by U.S. companies grew 24 percent in 2003.

As the summarizer for the event, I said in closing it was clear that investing in the education and training of newcomers and their children will pay big dividends economically as communities become more sustainable and as the workforce becomes more skilled. Roanoke is making great strides to be a leader in making itself a community that works for everybody.

Volunteers to be Rewarded by Dr. Pepper

Another opportunity to recognize volunteers is upon us this summer with Dr. Pepper's initiative to recognize those who work to improve their communities.  The campaign, titled "Pepper Your Community", will honor 23 total volunteers based on their "leadership, commitment to making a difference, and community and humanitarian efforts."  Of these 23, the two top ranked volunteers will be able to designate a charity of their choice to receive a $23,000 donation.  The remaining 21 volunteers will be able to designate charities to receive a lesser, but still significant, $2,300 donation.

The deadline for nomination is July 7th, between July 24th and August 11th web users can visit the "Pepper Your Community" website and vote on the finalists chosen by Magic Johnson and a panel of judges.  Sounds like a good opportunity to reward someone who works hard on behalf of their community as well as a worthy community organization.

Volunteers Needed in Rural Areas

The current issue of the Economist (June 24, 2006) reports on a story from Garber, Oklahoma.  It seems that amidst the decline of main street and the economy, the town has also lost its ambulance service for lack of qualified volunteers. The shiny town ambulance stands unused for the last eight months. Residents have to wait for 25 minutes to receive help rather than the six minutes they had before. According to the head of Oklahoma's emergency medical services, Shawn Rogers, this is not a plight peculiar only to Garber--ten rural ambulance services in Oklahoma have come to a stop in the last five years. Rural emergency services are almost always run by volunteers who have devoted hours of their personal time to train as paramedics or emergency medical technicians. As we face increased pressure on health care costs and availability, this is something we can do something about. We would appreciate hearing of ways that other communities have met this critical need. We need to get the word out on ways to provide rural emergency services.

New Web Resource for Sustainable Communities

A new initiative from the Ford Foundation is collecting stories about neighborhood-based arts and cultural organizations for a website called Culture Shapes Community.  The site has some content posted but is definitely looking for more.  If you have a story to share that you think would be relevant then please use their website to submit your idea.  According to the homepage, the Culture Shapes Community initiative is also looking for grantees, this could be an opportunity for an aspiring organization to gain some attention.

Newspapers Are Not Dead Yet

The news is in: newspapers are out. According to journalism.org in its The State of the News Media 2004, there has been a steady decline in real numbers of newspaper readership since 1990. According to this report, the trend started in the late 1940s but population increases kept circulation rising. Just more than half of Americans read a newspaper during the week. I think this a real travesty to our democracy and our sense of community. Yes we can get our news online and from the cable but local news coverage keeps us connected where we live and work in tangible and intangible ways. We learn about local issues and local events. We find ways to connect or reach out. We find out who was born and who died. We improve our community literacy.

Amidst this seemingly dire circumstance is a great story in The Washington Post from Jonesborough, TN. The town and the newspaper (The Herald & Tribune), at times rivals and adversaries, have become partners. The town is paying to have a copy of the newspaper sent to all the residents and the paper has agreed to thorough coverage of civic boards. While given no influence on the editorial side, the beefed-up coverage helps the town, the citizens, and the circulation of the paper. My guess is that it will help the civic life of Jonesborough in untold ways. We will watch with great interest.

Community Branding – Slogans, Corridors, and Narratives

There is any number of ways to give a community a brand name or unique identity.  The community of Sebastopol, CA (Population: 7,800) hired a firm for almost $50,000 to conduct a study of the town and determine how it might best "sell" itself to future shoppers and tourists.  The firm will sound out community opinion in focus groups and community surveys in order to determine the best brand name.  Messages developed by the firm will be used in publications, on billboards, and other sorts of communications.

Another approach described on the camiros.com website website is that taken by Carol Stream, IL.  The village decided it needed a corridor to attract shoppers and used a broad-based civic participation model to make changes to two particular corridors (read: streets or avenues) running through town.  In Carol Stream the result was a $1.2 million architectural enhancement to the corridors that gives them a more "identifiable presence."  The camiros.com website has published three principles of corridor building that seem to offer sound advice for any person or group undertaking such a project.

Finally, I think it's important to add that a community does not necessarily have to pay big bucks to define itself in a particular way.  Often times what an area wants to offer is not one particular thing but a multitude of different small selling points.  I recently ran across this article about Lansing, MI and thought it represented this idea very well.  Lansing is not the first city people mention when they talk about diversity but this author has done an excellent job of creating a narrative about Lansing's diverse offerings, how they define the community, and why they represent the backbone of the community's success.  The cost here was zero and while the city of Lansing does not come away from this article with a new slogan it does have a narrative that captures its best aspects and highlights them in an appealing way that really "sells."

Reforms that Could Narrow the Achievement Gap

A new report by the former national education columnist at The New York Times, Richard Rothstein, discusses a number of ways in which we can help reduce the achievement gap between lower- and middle-class children.  Rothstein argues that any society that chooses to accept differences in wealth and social standing also must accept a gap in achievement as a result.  He then proceeds to list some options that exist outside of school reform that might help in closing the gap.  Among those options are:

•    Equalizing income inequalities through wage subsidies
•    Stable housing through voucher programs or similar programs
•    School-community health clinics for students
•    Early childhood education beyond Head Start
•    After school programs
•    Summer programs
•    Adequacy suits (the inadequacy of)
•    Teacher morale

The recommendations from Rothstein are adapted from his book, Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap.  For a summary of the report see the press release at PNN Online.

Award of Excellence for Dropout Prevention

The National Dropout Prevention Network at Clemson is sponsoring its annual Award of Excellence for the individual or program that has exhibited "strong leadership and accomplishments contributing to effective dropout prevention strategies."  Awards will be presented at the 18th Annual National Dropout Prevention Network Conference in San Antonio, Texas, October 22-25, 2006.

Note that there are three categories of awards – individuals, programs, and an award for distinguished service and leadership.  This award would be a nice feather in the cap of anyone interested in tackling the serious problem of high school dropouts.  The deadline is June 30, 2006 so visit the website soon for criteria, nomination forms, and  information on past award winners.

Fox Cities Sees Big Picture

The Fox Cities area of Wisconsin got the results of a study of their locale this past month and mostly liked what it saw.  According to the Appleton Post-Crescent, from their "arts opportunities and quality education to their strong work ethic, safe surroundings, pull-together attitude and plentiful water resources," Fox Cities residents are sitting pretty.

Even communities that have it all have their challenges, though, and I found one of the challenges identified in the study was "the achievement gap between poor fourth-graders and their peers on reading and math scores."  As a measure of thinking ahead for community success you can't beat childhood education.  The lead researcher of the LIFE study, Lora Warner, told the Post-Crescent, "If I had to pick one thing to try to do something about as a long-term factor, this is it.  If you help poorer kids succeed in school you are going to solve a lot of these other problems."

The LIFE study examined a host of different measures of capacity, resources, and quality of life issues and can be found online.