by William H. Woodwell Jr.
How can I make my city more vibrant and competitive by investing in our children and youth?
What can I do to rally the schools, the business community, community and faith-based organizations, and local residents around a children-and-families agenda?
What are the best ways to promote early childhood success, school-community partnerships, family economic security, youth involvement and other goals?
More than 200 city and school officials, community leaders and young people from across the country gathered in San Antonio last week to wrestle with these and other questions during the 2005 National Summit on Your City?s Families.
Sponsored by NLC?s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families ? in collaboration with the City of San Antonio and the Texas Municipal League ? the three-day event offered an array of opportunities for learning, networking and leadership to build family-friendly communities.
Participants also provided their input on a platform developed by NLC?s Council on Youth, Education, and Families to mobilize municipal leadership on behalf of children, youth and families for years to come.
?We are here to talk about how we can work together as communities and as a nation to strengthen families and provide an excellent future for our children,? said Mayor Ron Gonzales of San Jose, Calif., chair of the council. ?The goal is to look at what children and families need to succeed ? and to reach some consensus and clarity around the infrastructure and supports that should be available in our cities and towns.?
?Child-Friendly? Cities
Delivering the keynote address at the conference was Carol Bellamy, president and CEO of World Learning, former president of the city council in New York City and former director of UNICEF ? the United Nations Children?s Fund.
Bellamy noted that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has brought home for all Americans the importance of investing in America?s cities and addressing the ?extraordinary challenges? facing the millions of children and families who call them home.
Noting President Bush?s statement that New Orleans would be ?built back better,? she explored what it means to build a ?better city? from the perspective of helping children and families succeed.
?When we discuss investment in strengthening our cities, we must discuss investment in children, as it is the investment with the greatest return,? she said.
Bellamy applauded NLC for having young people as active participants in the summit and noted that youth participation is an essential characteristic of child-friendly cities. ?Children have the right to be involved in the decisions that affect them, yet most are systematically excluded from the decision-making that affects their lives.?
Bellamy drew on the work of the United Nations? Child Friendly Cities Initiative to emphasize a number of other rights to which children are entitled. These include: the right to receive basic services such as health care, education and shelter; the right to be protected from violence and abuse; and the right to be an equal citizen of their cities.
Municipal governments, Bellamy added, must play a leadership role in advancing and protecting these rights ? for example, by creating a Children?s Rights Unit in local government and a Children?s Rights Strategy for realizing a child-friendly city.
Bellamy cited a number of other strategies that cities can follow as they work to become child-friendly, including: creating a Children?s Budget to ensure that children are getting the resources they need; and producing a regular State of the City?s Children report to show how children are doing and where action and resources are most needed.
?A city that is not child-friendly, no matter how appealing it seems to some, is not friendly to anyone who cares about the city?s future,? Bellamy said.
Workshops, Site Visits Showcase Solutions
Bellamy?s remarks raised the curtain on the wide range of topics that were the focus of numerous site visits, workshops, and networking discussions at the summit.
Workshop sessions highlighted the latest innovations from municipalities across the country and provided participants with strategies and ideas for achieving progress for children and families in their communities.
Summit participants also made site visits to numerous locations in and around San Antonio that are putting the principles of the summit to work. Sites ranged from a transitional learning center for homeless families and individuals to the San Antonio Zoo?s innovative Tiny Tot Nature Spot to the Central Library and local schools.
A View from the Front Lines
The closing general session of the conference kicked off with a panel discussion featuring Gonzales and two other mayors who offered a front-line perspective on city efforts to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families.
Gonzales described a wide range of initiatives under way in San Jose, from ?Smart Start? early learning centers to the presence of afterschool programs in every middle school and high school. Next up, Mayor Otis Johnson of Savannah, Ga., talked about his city?s efforts to work with citizens on plans to revitalize what he called ?forgotten neighborhoods.? And, Mayor Bill Purcell of Nashville, Tenn., explained his commitment to improving public education in the city.
In a discussion facilitated by Liz Ruiz, news anchor of San Antonio?s KTSA Radio, the three mayors also touched on a number of challenges and opportunities facing all cities. Among these: where to find the funding for programs for children, youth, and families.
Citing decreases in state funding, Purcell said the lack of resources is ?the biggest problem we have? in Nashville. The city has passed significant property taxes in recent years with strong support from the Chamber of Commerce, realtors and other business interests. However, voters recently said no to an increase in the sales tax.
?We?re pushing as hard as we can at the local level for the resources we need, and the challenge is to get the state and federal governments to back us up with the money they should be providing,? Purcell said.
Johnson agreed that other levels of government need to devote additional resources to these issues and make children?s issues ?a real agenda item.? He added that cities need to do a better job demonstrating to voters that money for young people and families is being used wisely.
Savannah, Johnson explained, has made accountability and measurement a key component of its efforts to revitalize the community and invest in children.
?Until we can convince people that we are efficiently using the money we have, they will be reluctant to support new expenditures. We owe that accountability to them,? he said.
Details: Go to www.nlc.org/iyef for more information on the Summit, including a final agenda, remarks made by some presenters and handouts used in some sessions (e.g, the platform developed by the YEF Council). Or, leave a message at 202-626-3014 or iyef@nlc.org.