by Michael Karpman
Strong families are the foundation of strong communities.
That is the message of a new platform issued by NLC?s Council on Youth, Education, and Families. Under the leadership of San Jose, Calif., Mayor Ron Gonzales, the council crafted the ?City Platform for Strengthening Families and Improving Outcomes for Youth? as a challenge to municipal leaders across America.
The platform will be unveiled at the closing Delegates Luncheon of the 82nd Annual Congress of Cities in Charlotte, N.C., on December 10, 2005. All attendees will receive a copy.
The two-part platform urges every city and town to take concrete steps on behalf of children, youth and families. These steps can be implemented in any community, regardless of size or composition, to yield immediate and significant results.
The first section of the platform identifies the ?essential infrastructure? that is needed in every community for sustained progress.
The second part offers a set of specific action steps that communities should take in each of seven areas:
? Early childhood development
? Youth development
? Education and afterschool
? Health and safety
? Youth in transition and at risk
? Family economic success
? Neighborhoods and community
While the steps may seem ambitious, the platform is designed to encourage cities and towns to build on already established processes and fill key gaps in existing programs and initiatives.
?A community?s quality of life can be measured by the opportunities available to help children and families to succeed,? said Gonzales. ?This platform provides a blueprint for cities to create the opportunities that can help all our families thrive.?
The platform recommends various ways in which mayors, councilmembers and senior city administrators can improve outcomes for children, youth and families.
Among the recommendations are ways to identify needs, measure progress, promote collaboration between cities, schools and other community stakeholders, and encourage youth participation and leadership.
?Setting targets and then working collaboratively to ensure progress toward meeting them is the key,? said Clifford Johnson, executive director of the Institute for Youth, Education, and Families. ?By encouraging youth to have a voice through youth councils or youth master planning, municipalities can also create healthier and safer communities.?
The platform notes that when there is little investment in meeting the needs of children and families, communities often face greater costs down the road in the form of higher spending for public safety and human services, tighter municipal budgets, reduced potential of the local workforce and weakened growth of the local economy.
?Increasingly, local government leaders recognize that improving outcomes for children, youth and families is a central concern that affects all aspects of our communities,? said Gonzales. ?It is in the vital interest of cities and towns to use the recommendations in this platform to achieve our common goals of prosperity, safety and vitality.?
Details: The platform can be downloaded at www.nlc.org/iyef.
To request a hard copy, contact Michael Karpman at (202) 626-3072 or karpman@nlc.org.