Cities of Service Initiative

Posted by on November 9, 2009

Cities of Service is a bi-partisan coalition of the mayors of large and small cities from across our country who will work together to engage citizens to address the great challenges of our time. Founded in New York City on September 10, the coalition and its member cities will respond to the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act’s historic call to action by finding new and innovative ways to harness the power of volunteers to help solve pressing local challenges.

Cities of Service will lead a multi-year effort to engage other Mayors across the country by:

* Developing a comprehensive service plan and a coordinated strategy focused on matching volunteers and established community partners to the areas of greatest local need.
* Working with other mayors and elected officials to advance strategies and best practices that accelerate the service movement and produce measurable results.
* Encouraging other mayors to join this national effort to engage our citizens.
* Ensuring that the voice of cities is heard in federal legislative, policy, and program discussions related to service, which will help the country achieve the ambitious goals of the Serve America Act.

Learn more at http://www.citiesofservice.org

“Building the Blueprint” Summit
To assist Mayors’ offices in building city-specific blueprints for citizen engagement that address local issues, the Corporation for National and Community Service is organizing a planning meeting , “Building the Blueprint” for December 3-4, 2009, in Philadelphia. If your organization is interested in advancing Cities of Service, we hope that you will reach out to mayors in your affiliate cities and encourage them to sign up as a City of Service and send representatives to this meeting.  Mayors must officially be signed up as a city of service to be eligible to send representatives to the training. “Building the Blueprint” is for any mayor’s office that has signed up to be a City of Service – there are no population restrictions.  Mayor’s offices can send a team of people, but they are asked to at least send the staff person responsible for implementing their City of Service agenda and an individual(s) from public or private partner organization(s). The Corporation has funding to cover the travel for 2 people designated by the mayor from each of 30 Cities of Service. If your Mayor has signed up as a City of Service and is interested in having someone from your city attend “Building the Blueprint” complete the form at http://tiny.cc/9dWHX