Mayor Menino, Social Entrepreneur Strickland to Keynote National Summit On Your City’s Families

Sponsored by NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families, this biennial summit is the nation’s largest gathering of municipal leaders who are working to improve the lives of children, youth, and families. NLC anticipates that more than 400 mayors, council members, senior city staff, and school and community partners from more than 150 cities will participate in the 2009 summit. To register online, visit www.nlc.org/iyef.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino

Mayor Menino is the founding chair of NLC's Council on Youth, Education, and Families, and was instrumental in the creation of NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families in January 2000. Mayor Menino is currently serving his fourth term as mayor of Boston. Prior to being elected to his first term as mayor in 1993, he previously served for four months as acting mayor and nine years as a city councilor.

During his mayoral tenure, Mayor Menino has championed the needs of young people and their families, and has made Boston a national leader in areas ranging from school reform and afterschool programming to family economic success and community wellness. Under Mayor Menino’s leadership, Boston Public Schools has achieved exceptional gains in student performance, earning the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2006. In addition, Boston’s exemplary youth violence prevention and community policing efforts have brought crime to historic lows and drawn national attention. 

Mayor Menino has spearheaded numerous efforts that place Boston at the cutting edge of municipal innovation, including the Mayor’s Youthline, BOSTONavigator, Boston After School and Beyond, the Office of New Bostonians, the Boston Schoolyards Initiative, Thrive in Five, the Food and Fuel Campaign and the Foreclosure Intervention Team. As host of the 2009 summit, Mayor Menino will share lessons from Boston’s experience and his perspective on the future of city leadership for children, youth and families.

William E. Strickland Jr., president and CEO, Manchester Bidwell Corporation

Strickland is a nationally recognized social entrepreneur whose arts, education and job training centers have served youth and adults in Pittsburgh’s disadvantaged Manchester neighborhood since 1969. As president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (MCG) and Bidwell Training Center (BTC), Strickland has built a national model for delivering educational, cultural and employment opportunities. 

MCG began as an afterschool program in a donated rowhouse, and now provides education and hope to thousands of youth at a state-of-the-art facility. MCG Youth & Arts enables students to work with visiting artists, and offers classes in ceramics, photography, digital imaging, and design. MCG Jazz connects youth with jazz artists for performances and recordings at its 350-seat music hall.

As the steel industry declined, Strickland assumed leadership of BTC’s vocational training programs in 1971 to help displaced, underemployed workers develop skills relevant to Pittsburgh’s emerging industries. Working together with governments and businesses, BTC offers programs in areas such as chemical lab technologies, health careers, and horticulture. 

Strickland seeks to expand this model in 200 cities around the world; similar nonprofits have opened in Cincinnati, Grand Rapids and San Francisco.

In addition to receiving the MacArthur Foundation’s “Genius” award, Strickland has served as a board member for the National Endowment for the Arts and the President’s Committee on Arts and Humanities. Summit participants will hear the inspiring story of how Strickland grew up in a challenging environment and went on to become a visionary leader in helping the disadvantaged build a better future.

Details: Early bird registration for the 2009 National Summit on Your City’s Families is available at www.nlc.org/iyef. NLC member city mayors and council members will also receive a summit registration form in the mail within the next few weeks. For more information, please contact Sharie Wood at (202) 626-3087 or wood@nlc.org.