Las Vegas, Nevada
This success story was originally published as a 2018 All-America City Award project description and is reprinted courtesy of the National Civic League. Learn more about the award program here.
City by Design provides residents, stakeholders, staff, and elected officials with a collective vision and plans for a future filled with income equality and economic mobility. Las Vegas is also bridging the digital divide to reach innovative digital inclusion with free community Wi-Fi. Connect Home, a recent city project with the local housing authority, provided free Wi-Fi, technology, and training to public housing and Section 8 residents.
Three project examples showing how this community leverages civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues:
1. The Harbor
The Harbor is a Juvenile Assessment Center located in Las Vegas that addresses disproportionate minority contact as it diverts youth, primarily youth of color, from the juvenile justice system. A multi-agency collaboration, The Harbor includes staff and supervision from the Clark County Department of Juvenile Justice Services, the City of Las Vegas, the Department of Family Services, Clark County School District, and many other organizations.
Through collaboration, these agencies provide safe haven for vulnerable teens and their families. The program ensures that it is responsive to its participants’ needs by including them in decision-making processes and having youth serve on the Executive Steering Committee. The Harbor helps mitigate barriers to services by not charging families or requiring insurance and by allowing undocumented families to receive services.
The Harbor provides assessments and services to get young people back on track after experiencing troubles with drugs and alcohol, truancy, mental health, etc. The program addresses current as well as ongoing needs for each and every youth. Youth can enter The Harbor through law enforcement as an alternative to Department of Juvenile Justice Services booking, through community outreach, or through an agency referral.
Since its inception, The Harbor has assisted over 3,000 youth and families. Of these 3,000 youth, only 115 have escalated to Juvenile Justice Services. This represents a success rate of approximately 96 percent. The Harbor is also part of the Las Vegas My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, which is a partnership of community organizations focused on community engagement, educational equity, and law enforcement.
2. Our Stories
In 2010, The Westside School Alumni Foundation (WSAF) was founded to preserve the historic Westside School site, educate the public on its history and value, and to encourage the development of the vacant school as a cultural destination. The Westside School, which opened in 1923, was the first Las Vegas school to open its doors to African American and Native American students. Today, the school site stands as a testament to Las Vegas’ ongoing efforts to facilitate racial healing and community dialogue.
One of the first major projects for the WSAF was the development of a book. The book detailed the history of the school and surrounding neighborhood as told by the people who lived it. Photos, artifacts, and personal memorabilia were collected to provide context and insight. Billed as a major community event, the book launch was a huge success and all proceeds of book sales were directly returned to the community through educational stipends and youth scholarships.
In 2016, the city passed a community development plan intent on revitalizing the Westside School community. The community was highly engaged in the visioning process and encouraged to attend meetings and contribute ideas. The resulting plans from this process were incorporated into the Las Vegas 2035 Downton Master Plan, making it an official city council-approved document to be incorporated into future development.
3. ReInvent Schools Las Vegas
ReInvent Schools Las Vegas (RSLV) is a collaboration that brings together government, local businesses, private and non-profit organizations, and the community to address educational equity across the school district. As the fifth largest school district in the county, the Clark County School District, which includes the City of Las Vegas, faces many difficult challenges. Most children at RSLV schools reside within a food desert. In southern Nevada alone, it is reported that 36.8 percent of children are overweight or obese.
To reduce the number of students who are overweight or obese, RSLV is working with Create a Change Now, a partnership focused on the new Healthy School, Healthy Life Program. The program has five components:
- Garden clubs,
- Chefs in schools,
- Let’s Move fitness programs/yoga,
- Pop-Up Produce, and
- Nutrition lessons.
All of these programs use different strategies to help students and their families develop healthy relationships with food and nutrition, while learning essential information about health and wellbeing.
Health and wellness is only one of RSLV’s initiatives. They have also partnered with AmeriCorps to battle truancy and provide literacy interventions. Most recently, the City of Las Vegas joined youth and adults of RSLV and with community members in funding and producing an All-America City float in the 36th Annual Las Vegas Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade.
Additional Resources
Meet the Manager
Scott D. Adams, ICMA-CM
City Manager- Director of the Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Director of Planning and Economic Development with the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Executive Director of the New Orleans Regional Medical Center, Inc.
- Executive Vice President of the Greater Norfolk (Virginia) Corporation
- Executive Director of the Jacksonville (Florida) Downtown Development Authority
- Assistant Executive Director of the Center City Commission in Memphis, Tennessee
- Planning and development positions in his hometown of Jackson, Michigan
Decatur, Georgia
This success story was originally published as a 2018 All-America City Award project description and is reprinted courtesy of the National Civic League. Learn more about the award program here.
The city of Decatur’s typical strategic planning processes involve house dinners, community roundtables, and diverse steering committees. The city’s commitment to equity shows in its Better Together program and its Community Action Plan for Equity, Inclusion and Engagement, which is designed to make Decatur a more welcoming, inclusive and equitable place to live, work and visit. City government is in the process of assessing its departments, and training managers and volunteers to bring racial equity into the workplace on a regular and ongoing basis.
Three project examples showing how Decatur leverages civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues:
1. Better Together
Decatur’s Better Together Initiative was a year-long, community-wide visioning process designed “to cultivate a more just, welcoming, inclusive, equitable and compassionate experience for all who live, visit or work here.” Through the initiative, approximately 800 residents worked under the guidance of a Leadership Circle to put together a Community Action Plan for Inclusion, Equity and Engagement that outlines 60 action items for individuals, organizations and local government.
The Leadership Circle, much like a steering committee, was made up of 19 individuals who came from diverse backgrounds. The committee set three goals for the Better Together Initiative: An Equitable and Inclusive City; Racially-Just Community Policing; and Diverse and Affordable Housing. Throughout the process, extra efforts were made to engage immigrants, young people, seniors, lower-income residents, people of color and others who are often underrepresented.
Once the action plan was completed, a diverse 15-member advisory committee was appointed to oversee implementation. Activities to date include:
- Creation of a community asset map,
- A Welcoming America Interactive reception for immigrants,
- A community conversation focused on “Who Is Decatur” and
- Discussions on how to improve policing, community development and other functions in ways that respect differences and create equitable outcomes.
2. Community Relations Officers Who Enforce the Law
In 2015, the Decatur Police Department began an effort to reform the way they do policing, dovetailing this work with the Better Together Initiative and work to improve racial equity. The process, which involved extensive community outreach and guidance, has led to community policing being embedded in the Decatur Police department’s culture to the point that Decatur Police now refer to themselves as “Community Relations Officers Who Enforce the Law.”
As a result of complaints and community concerns, Decatur Police Chief Mike Booker hired an outside consultant. The consultant organized 24 focus groups of 10-15 residents each to hear perspectives on the department from the community, with special attention to resident groups that had concerns about the police. The focus groups, which included police officers, helped craft a three-year strategic plan for the department that focused on improving the responsiveness of the police to the community.
Implementation of the department’s strategic plan includes the use of social media platforms, including Nextdoor.com and Facebook, as a means of staying in touch with the community. Training is another focus area, with new programs to train police officers in working with people of color, the mentally ill, families in crisis and the general public in a manner that shows understanding and respect. Training programs for the community are also included, with a Citizens Police Academy, self-defense classes, kids’ programs and other activities aimed at improving mutual respect and understanding between residents and the department.
3. I Am Decatur
I Am Decatur is a collection of thirty-two portraits and stories from a variety of community residents that represents the diverse backgrounds and lifestyles of people in the community. The collection is the brainchild of Decatur resident and photographer Beate Sass, who was dismayed at the divisions caused by the 2016 presidential elections and worked with local grassroots organizations to create what she calls “a celebration of our differences and of our shared humanity.”
The city embraced I Am Decatur as part of its Better Together Initiative and displayed the photos during its annual Welcoming America reception in September 2017, which included a conversation among about 50 people designed to bridge differences. The exhibit also served as a backdrop for a “We Are Decatur” Sunday Supper Community Conversation organized by the Better Together Advisory Board to create an opportunity for the community to gather for conversations across differences. Over 150 residents attended the gathering, which has led to the creation of a conversations toolkit for hosting smaller neighborhood gatherings.
Sponsors of the photo collection are now working with local business and tourism associations to display the exhibit in storefronts and other public locations. In addition to the photos, Beate Sass has collected stories from dozens of residents, with those stories being catalogued on a website, all as part of an effort to bridge differences and build connections among the city’s different populations.
Additional Resources
Meet the Manager
Peggy Merriss
City ManagerCharlotte, North Carolina
This success story was originally published as a 2018 All-America City Award project description and is reprinted courtesy of the National Civic League. Learn more about the award program here.
Charlotte has undertaken several racial equity processes designed to improve community service delivery, including the ongoing use of a racial equity lens for city programs. This has resulted in strategic capital investments in targeted neighborhoods. Following a report revealing economic inequity in the city and a police shooting in late 2016, the city engaged thousands of residents in one-on-one conversations and community meetings to collect ideas on how to improve equity and address racial bias community-wide.
Three project examples demonstrate how this community leverages civic engagement, collaboration, inclusiveness and innovation to successfully address local issues:
1. Project P.I.E.C.E Workforce Development Collaboration
The Partnership for Inclusive Employment and Career Excellence (PIECE) Workforce Development Collaboration program was started by Charlotte’s Economic Development department as an outgrowth of community conversations about economic inequity in the city. In 2016 a joint study by Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley found that a person born into poverty in Charlotte has a lower chance of ascending the economic ladder than in any of the 49 other cities included in the study.
PIECE is a collaboration among the city, local businesses, and nonprofit organizations to provide construction-industry training and employment to economically challenged segments of the Charlotte community. Through neighborhood-level outreach, the PIECE program has identified hard-to-employ populations and provide them with the needed training to enter long-term employment as a skilled worker in the construction industry. Participants include people with criminal backgrounds, periods of chronic unemployment and low skill levels. Particular attention was spent on recruiting youth and people of color.
By working with Goodwill Industries and other nonprofits, PIECE trained 154 individuals in 2017 and employed 117. More than 50 businesses have signed on as partners with PIECE to assist with
- Curriculum development,
- Mock interviews,
- Mentoring, and
- Placement.
2. LEVEL UP Youth Program
LEVEL UP was started in 2017 to assist Charlotte teens by preventing crime, promoting health, and reducing academic summer regression. The initiative is a collaboration of the city, the YMCA, and an assortment of other nonprofit organizations. It was begun as a result of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Opportunity Task Force’s “Leading on Opportunity” report, which recommended a variety of services to address teen crime, health and academic success.
The LEVEL UP program hosts activities at branch YMCA sites in low-income areas on weekend evenings and during the summer, during which volunteers from several youth nonprofits provide mentoring services, classes, and recreational activities. Additional opportunities include interacting with police officers, tutoring, and becoming part of longer-term mentoring and educational programs.
During 2017, LEVEL UP provided services to just over 1,000 teens and utilized 330 volunteers. A large majority of the teens were low-income African-Americans, and a majority were boys between the ages of 14-18. The program is gearing up for 2018 and has a goal of enrolling 1,500 teens and garnering 400 volunteers. The number of sites and activities will be expanded as well. Goals have been set for the teens to perform better in school, enroll in higher education, and show improvements in self-confidence.
3. Smart District/North End Infrastructure
Charlotte is working to bring greater prosperity to its North End neighborhood, which is mostly African-American and low-income, through an innovative community engagement strategy aimed at connecting the area’s residents to technology and job opportunities that will improve their well-being. Residents’ ideas will be sought in four areas:
- Smart Homes,
- Healthy Communities,
- Job training for jobs in technology, and a
- “Build your own project” category aimed at miscellaneous innovations.
Many residents in the North End do not have access to the same infrastructure or amenities as other residents in other parts of the city. This project, dubbed the North End Smart District, is aimed at improving the health and economic well-being of people in the area by facilitating resident-driven initiatives to improve access to technology and to adopt environmentally sustainable practices.
A companion project will improve the physical infrastructure of the North End to make it more attractive as a location for high technology employers and as a place to live. The Applied Innovation Corridor Project partners with academic institutions to bring new businesses to the area. Extension of light rail and redevelopment of a housing district will make the area more accessible and attractive, while maintaining affordability for the existing population.
Additional Resources
- Charlotte, North Carolina, 2018 AAC Award video presentation
- 2018 AAC Award presentation photo gallery
Meet the Manager
Marcus D. Jones
City Manager
