April 2003

Hello, and welcome to the April issue of the National Civic League's email newsletter. This monthly communication will provide information on the activities and accomplishments of NCL and links to information on a variety of topics relating to NCL's mission.

The National Civic League is a 109-year-old non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to strengthening citizen democracy by transforming democratic institutions. NCL accomplishes its mission through technical assistance, training, publishing, research, and the All-America City Award. The National Civic League is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, call 303-571-4343 or visit www.ncl.org.

This newsletter is by subscription only! You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription on our website or because you are an NCL member. If you would like to unsubscribe, look for instructions at the end of this newsletter.

1. All-America City Finalists Announced
2. NCL Website Redesigned
3. Expanding the Latino Electorate
4. Student Voices Job Posting
5. New Politics Program Internship
6. Civic Index Feature: Community Vision
7. Contact Information

National Civic League Announces Finalists For
2003 All-America City Award
30 communities vie for nation's most prestigious civic award

Denver, Colorado - April 30, 2003, The National Civic League announced today the 30 Finalist communities for this year's All-America City Award, the nation's premiere civic recognition program.

The All-America City Award encourages and recognizes civic excellence, honoring the communities (neighborhoods, towns, cities, counties and regions) in which community members, government, businesses and non-profit organizations demonstrate successful resolution of critical community issues. Since 1949, more than 4,000 communities have competed and nearly 500 have been designated "All-America Cities."

The Finalist communities that will be competing for the honor of being designated an All-America City are (listed in alphabetical order):

"The National Civic League would like to congratulate the thirty 2003 All-America City Award Finalists, as they serve as models for the rest of the country," said Christopher T. Gates, president of the National Civic League. "Through their demonstrated ingenuity and collaboration, these communities are tackling challenges that seem insurmountable and are producing positive and tangible results."

The 30 Finalists will participate in a final round of the All-America City competition in Washington, D.C., June 12-14. A delegation from each Finalist community will present to a 10-member jury their innovative programs and local solutions addressing a wide range of social and community issues, including crime, education, poverty, housing and race relations. The ten 2003 All-America Cities will be named on June 14 during a special awards ceremony at the Hilton Washington & Towers.

The ten communities designated as All-America Cities in 2002 were: Tuscaloosa-Northport Region, Alabama; Anchorage, Alaska; Fountain, Colorado; Elgin, Illinois; Roswell, New Mexico; Buffalo-Niagara Region, New York; Huntington, New York; Weslaco, Texas; Hampton, Virginia; and Everett, Washington.

For more information about the All-America City Award, please visit the National Civic League web site at www.ncl.org/aac.

The National Civic League is a 109-year-old non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to strengthening citizen democracy by transforming democratic institutions. NCL accomplishes its mission through technical assistance, training, publishing, research, and the All-America City Award. The National Civic League is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has an office in Washington, D.C.

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NCL's web site has been redesigned to facilitate quicker browsing and ease of use for first time visitors. The web site has also been supplemented with several new features for return visitors, such as useful resources, expanded service offerings, and new online publications. Please visit www.ncl.org to see the changes, and please feel free to send comments to webdesign@ncl.org.

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On April 15th, the National Civic League sponsored a presentation by Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) http://www.naleo.org/index.htm. Mr. Vargas’ speech, which was entitled “Expanding the Latino Electorate” and delivered at the Denver Chamber of Commerce Board room, focused on the implications of recent research conducted by NALEO, the National Council of La Raza, and the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration into trends among the Latino electorate.

Among the findings presented by Mr. Vargas were that:

• Of all the forms of participation, Latinos see voting as the most effective way to influence change;
• Age and education are the dominant factors driving voter participation. Less-regular voters are younger and less well educated;
• The messages most effective at motivating Latinos to vote are those that relate to themes of patriotism, family and community; and
• Latino voters strongly prefer Get Out The Vote materials that give equal play to both Spanish and English ad copy.

NALEO is a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization whose mission is to empower Latinos to participate fully in American democracy. As part of this mission, NALEO works to increase electoral participation of Latinos nationwide. The research cited by Mr. Vargas during his NCL sponsored presentation grew out of NALEO’s Voces del Pueblo program (http://www.naleo.org/voces_del_pueblo.htm), a multi-layered approach to increasing Latino voter participation, specifically targeting low-propensity Latino registered voters.

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NCL is currently soliciting applications for a project manager to join the Student Voices project in Denver, Colorado. The Student Voices Project is sponsored by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The project works with local school systems throughout the country to help high school students learn about their local government and become more civically engaged. In 2001, the National Civic League was selected by the Annenberg Public Policy Center to organize the Student Voices Project in Denver in association with the Denver Public School System. We have been asked to continue the program for another year, and are looking for a Project Manager to run the program. See the full job description for more information.

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NCL is currently soliciting applications for interns to assist the New Politics Program in Denver, CO. The intern will research local campaign finance reform and maintain and update NCL's campaign finance reform database. Additionally, the intern may work on other political reform issues such as ethics and youth civic engagement. Please see the position announcement for more details and how to apply.

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Connecting Community Wellbeing to Regional Wellbeing

Cutbacks in federal funds and destructive economic competition among regions are two factors driving neighboring cities, towns, and counties to look for new avenues of cooperation. Local communities are no longer competing with each other as much as they are competing with other regions in the national and international marketplace. Individual communities need to cooperate with each other in planning for their shared future and addressing regional needs.

An additional factor that has spurred the need for inter-community cooperation is the emergence of issues that are more regional than local in nature: land use, hunger, affordable housing, economic development, and environmental protection. Such problems clearly cross jurisdictional boundaries and so must the solutions. For example, to what avail does a town clean up its river basin if the towns upstream continue to allow industrial wastes to be dumped into that river?

Read more of this article by NCL's Derek Okubo...

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