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Families, Parks and RecreationPress Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Washington, DC – A new report by the National League of Cities (NLC), The State of City Leadership for Children and Families in 2009, recognizes Orlando, Fla., for its cutting-edge efforts to promote child and family well-being, including the Parramore Kidz Zone initiative. The report is being released during the 2009 National Summit on Your City’s Families. For more information on the summit, visit www.nlc.org/iyef. Even as cities grapple with the worst budget outlook in decades, mayors and other municipal leaders have maintained a strong commitment to children, youth and their families. The report describes local innovations and trends in education, early childhood success, afterschool, youth in transition, youth violence prevention, community wellness, youth civic engagement, family economic success, and local “infrastructure” – such as cross-agency planning entities, data sharing efforts and creative financing mechanisms – to support children and families. “In recent years, cities have tested creative approaches to some of the nation’s greatest challenges and achieved impressive results,” said Clifford M. Johnson, executive director of NLC’s Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute), which published the report. “NLC applauds municipal leaders in Orlando for breaking new ground and inspiring other cities across the country to take their efforts to the next level.” The State of City Leadership report highlights Orlando’s Parramore Kidz Zone (PKZ) as one of the nation’s four most innovative city models for developing a local infrastructure for children, youth and families. Modeled on the Harlem Children’s Zone, PKZ seeks to connect the Parramore neighborhood’s 2,000 children with a comprehensive network of services to “move the needle” on juvenile crime, teen pregnancy, poverty, high school dropout rates and child abuse and neglect. This neighborhood-based initiative has contributed to positive trends in many of these areas: Since 2006, juvenile arrests declined by 47 percent, births to teen mothers fell by 18 percent, the percentage of low birthweight infants dropped by 22 percent, and state reading and math test scores improved across the board. In addition, virtually 100 percent of the children residing in the neighborhood had enrolled in PKZ’s programs by the end of the project’s third year. “We are incredibly proud of the success of our Parramore Kidz Zone initiative,” said Mayor Buddy Dyer. “Parramore Kidz Zone connects children to programs that will positively impact their lives, while also developing a model of prevention that can be replicated in other City neighborhoods. What we do now to support our children will not only make our community a better place, but will also secure the future of this great city.” The report provides a snapshot of the progress cities have made as the nation’s largest network of public policy “laboratories” and the potential for future action as municipal leaders identify and share promising approaches in these areas. The innovations and trends included in the report were selected based on the YEF Institute’s intensive work with thousands of municipal officials in hundreds of cities over the past 10 years, as well as an open call for nominations and targeted outreach to other national organizations in the field. The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. Contact ####### |
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