The Mayor’s Action Challenge for Children and Families just signed on its 100th Mayor. Initiated last November at the National League of Cities’ -Congress of Cities and Expositions – The Challenge calls upon mayors to promote child and family well-being including setting at least one local and unique goal in each of the following four areas:
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Opportunities to learn and grow;
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A safe neighborhood to call home;
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A healthy lifestyle and environment; and
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A financially fit family in which to thrive.
Mayors commit to sharing best practices, collaborating across communities, and inviting other mayors to sign up. They’ve developed a Statement of Principles and a Call to Action that provides key areas of focus for each of the four major themes such as parent education, after school programs, neighborhood park and playground equipment, incentives for supermarkets and farmers’ markets to open in low-income neighborhoods, efforts to open low-cost checking or savings for “unbanked” residents, and transitional employment initiatives for parents facing barriers to work.
The Challenge is supported by the National League of Cities’ Institute for Youth, Education, & Families and will be the feature of their April 23 audio-conference. Subsequent audio-conferences include “Neighborhood-Based Approaches to Improving Child and Family Well-Being” and “Promoting School Readiness: The Challenge of Reaching All Children.” The IYEF also has Peer Networks on several topics providing a means for city officials to share ideas and learn from one another. The Early Childhood Success Peer Networkprovides bimonthly updates, available online, that highlight strategies for municipal leaders and summaries of current early childhood events and research.
Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor was one of the 26 Challenge Founders and is the only mayor in Oklahoma currently signed on to the Challenge. You can see a list of all mayors by state online. This application will also list local goals and targets as they are set by each mayor.
Anyone know more about this? Have these goals already been set in Tulsa? Anyone know about interest in this initiative by other mayors in the area or been involved in this project in your community?
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