“Just as first-rate physical infrastructure is critical to commerce, health and safety, the volunteer and service infrastructure is arguably just as critical to society’s progress and success” said Brandon Bodor,  Executive Director of Serve Illinois in the Office of Governor Pat Quinn.

Illinois currently leads the nation with 25 Cities of Service – adding 11 new cities since January 2013 alone.

For more information about how your city can join the coalition, contact Cities of Service.

Read the Serve Illinois blog post from Uniting America

CONTACT: Samantha Jo Warfield
Phone: 202-606-6775
Email: sjwarfield@cns.gov

Nationwide Day of Recognition Brings Together Hundreds of Mayors to Mark the Impact of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps Programs

Washington, D.C. – More than 830 mayors from all 50 states are standing together in support of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs by participating in the first-ever Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service. Together, these mayors represent nearly 100 million citizens or one-third of Americans.

The first-ever Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service is being led by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), Cities of Service, the National League of Cities, and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Mayor Nutter spoke about the Day of Recognition this morning during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” CNCS is the federal agency for national service and volunteering that administers AmeriCorps and Senior Corps.

“It is a testament to the effectiveness of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs that nearly one-third of Americans will have their mayor participating in this first-ever Day of Recognition,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of CNCS. “We’re proud to stand with this bipartisan group of mayors. These leaders are shining a bright light on the impact of AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers as they improve neighborhoods and transform lives across the country.”

Spencer will join Mayor Nutter in Philadelphia as he presents the Mayor’s Award for Distinguished National Service. The program also will include remarks from former CNCS CEO Harris Wofford, a champion for national service and volunteerism who in February received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor. Spencer will return to Washington, D.C. where Mayor Vincent Gray will recognize national service programs at this evening’s Washington Nationals baseball game.

CNCS annually engages more than five million citizens in service at more than 70,000 locations in 8,500 cities across the country through AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other programs.

“As President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, I work with mayors from both sides of the aisle to find practical solutions to the problems we face in our cities,” said Mayor Nutter. “My colleagues and I agree that there are few resources more cost effective than America’s national service programs. AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers are central to the fabric of Philadelphia. Day after day, they roll up their sleeves and get to work addressing education, food insecurity, community revitalization and more. Simply put, in these challenging economic times, their service is essential to the current and future success of our city and our nation.”

“Today makes it clear that there is broad, bipartisan support among our nation’s mayors for programs like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps,” said Katie Leonberger, who manages the Cities of Service coalition. “National service members are key to mobilizing citizens to get important work done on the ground and we are thrilled to see so many mayors honor and support their efforts.”

“NLC is proud to serve as a co-sponsor of this inaugural day commemorating national service, and we are thrilled to see the high levels of participation and excitement from so many of our communities across the country,” said Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers, President of the National League of Cities. “National Service participants touch the lives of our residents every day, and are integral to the success of countless programs and services in our communities. Today we honor these selfless individuals for strengthening cities and towns across the country.”

Participating mayors will conduct site visits, roundtables, proclamations, and celebrations. These events are designed to highlight the impact of national service in cities, including helping kids learn to read and stay in school, rebuilding communities after disasters, connecting veterans to services, restoring city parks, building homes, focusing the efforts of community volunteers, and bringing life back to forgotten neighborhood. All events focus on the three groups that benefit AmeriCorps and Senior Corps: the recipients of service, the people who serve, and the larger community and nation.

The initiative has already gained support from a diverse range of mayors. A full list can be found here.

In addition to the service recognition event in Philadelphia with Mayor Nutter, other mayors who hold national leadership positions are marking this Day of Recognition.

• Avondale, Ariz.: Mayor Marie Lopez-Rogers, president of the National League of Cities, will sign a proclamation recognizing national service and meet with national service participants.
• Mesa, Ariz.: Mayor Scott Smith, who is the vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors, will hold a news conference at a community resource center started by an AmeriCorps VISTA team that served with the United Way. AmeriCorps VISTA Director Mary Strasser and CNCS Board Member Marguerite Kondracke will join Mayor Smith.
• St. Paul, Minn.: Mayor Chris Coleman, vice president of the National League of Cities, will join local leaders as he visits numerous AmeriCorps and Senior Corps project sites in his city, culminating with a celebration at a local business. CNCS Board Chair and Twin Cities Leader Laysha Ward will join Mayor Coleman.

In addition to these cities, mayors in other communities are commemorating national service in a number of ways:

• Albuquerque: Mayor Richard Berry will hold a public recognition ceremony at Civic Plaza by City Hall that will be followed by a volunteer information fair.
• Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska: Mayor Luke Hopkins will issue a proclamation. He will also hold a recognition ceremony followed by a luncheon for AmeriCorps VISTA members.
• Flint, Mich.: Mayor Dayne Walling, an AmeriCorps alumnus, will issue a proclamation, participate in a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders, host a recognition luncheon for the city’s “champions of national service,” and visit two national service projects in his city.
• Little Rock, Ark.: Mayor Mark Stodola will issue a mayoral proclamation and present each national service member or volunteer in attendance with a certificate of recognition. AmeriCorps Director Bill Basl will represent CNCS at the event.
• Los Angeles: At a morning news conference, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will recognize six national service programs where members and volunteers are making contributions in the area of education. Each program will receive a certificate from the mayor. CNCS Board Member and local leader Hyepin Im will join Mayor Villaraigosa.
• Missoula, Mont.: Mayor John Engen will visit local service sites and end the day with a social gathering, where he will sign a proclamation recognizing AmeriCorps members and Senior Corps volunteers. AmeriCorps Alums will also be in attendance.
• Nashville: Mayor Karl Dean will use the National Day of Recognition for National Service to launch a Cities of Service volunteering initiative. The event will include local leaders and representatives of AmeriCorps and Senior Corps projects.
• Orlando: Mayor Buddy Dyer will visit a classroom to observe AmeriCorps members serving with students,meet with members of his Mayor Buddy’s Book Club, and acknowledge school officials and community partners in the Together for Tomorrow program, a partnership between CNCS and other federal agencies, including Department of Education. He will also thank City Year Orlando AmeriCorps and Orlando Cares AmeriCorps VISTA members for their service.
• Omaha: Mayor Jim Suttle will oversee performances, speeches, and the presentation of a proclamation recognizing AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs.
• San Antonio: Mayor Julian Castro will hold a news conference during which he will recognize national service programs.
• Washington, D.C.: Mayor Vincent Gray will visit schools where national service participants are making a difference and before ending the day with CNCS CEO Wendy Spencer at the Washington Nationals game where AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs will be recognized.

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About the Corporation for National and Community Service

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit NationalService.gov.

About Cities of Service

Founded in September 2009 in New York City by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and 16 other mayors from across the nation, Cities of Service is a bipartisan coalition of mayors committed to addressing critical city needs through impact volunteering. American cities face serious challenges and many mayors want to take advantage of every resource available to them – including the time and energy of public-spirited residents – to address those challenges. But in cities across America today, citizen service is often an underutilized or inefficiently utilized strategy by municipal governments. By leveraging citizen service strategies, Cities of Service helps mayors address local needs and make government more effective.

About National League of Cities

The National League of Cities is dedicated to helping city leaders build better communities. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.

Cultivating and harnessing the impact of volunteers became a priority for the city. After co-founding the Cities of Service coalition in 2009, Mayor Dean appointed Nashville’s first Chief Service Officer, Laurel Creech, and launched his city’s first service plan, Impact Nashville, in September 2010.

Three years later, volunteerism in the city remains strong. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service’s 2012 Volunteering and Civic Life in America report, Nashville ranked 14th out of the nation’s 51 largest metro areas in terms of volunteerism. With a volunteerism rate of 30.9%, Nashville outpaces both the Tennessee state average (24.5%) and the US national average (26.8%).

Read the article from the Nashville Ledger

Read the Impact Nashville Service Plan

Read the article from WPRO News

Below is an audio montage featuring Pittsburgh Mayor Ravenstahl, Little Rock Mayor Stodola, and the Chief Service Officers of New York City, Austin, and Baton Rouge. These leaders speak passionately about the power of service to impact our most pressing challenges from their perspectives as coalition Mayors and Chief Service Officers.

Cities of Service Montage

Read the article from Michigan Live

Read the Cities of Service Love Your Block Blueprint

Contact: Sandy Scott, CNCS, 202-355-2173, pressoffice@cns.gov

Mark McDonald, City of Philadelphia, 215-686-6210, press@phila.gov

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Mayor Nutter Announces Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service on April 9

More than 75 mayors already signed on to recognize impact of national service

(Washington DC.) – Mayors across the country will participate in a national day of recognition this April 9 to highlight the impact of national service in their cities and thank individuals who serve, Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter, President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, announced today at the group’s annual winter meeting.

As part of his president’s report, Mayor Nutter told the assembled mayors that more than 75 of their colleagues across the country have already signed onto the effort, the first-ever Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service.

“National service is an vital resource for America’s cities,” said Mayor Nutter.  “By unleashing the power of citizens, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs have a positive and lasting impact – making our cities better places to live. I invite mayors across the country to join me on this day to thank those who serve and recognize the passion, idealism and cost-effective problem-solving that comes from national service programs in our cities.”

The initiative will be led by U.S. Conference of Mayors President Michael Nutter, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), Cities of Service, and other organizations.

“Mayors are leaders who get things done, responding every day to needs in their cities,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of CNCS.  “I commend Mayor Nutter for his outstanding leadership, and thank all those mayors joining in this important effort to recognize the impact of national service on the critical challenges facing our cities.”

As the federal agency for service and volunteering, CNCS annually engages more than four million citizens in service at more than 70,000 sites across the country through AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and other programs.  CNCS leverages federal and private funds to support organizations that achieve measurable results where the need is greatest. A significant portion of this investment is focused on cities.  CNCS has investments in more than 500 cities with a population of at least 30,000. Last year, CNCS leveraged more than $1 billion in investments for organizations operating or based in these cities. National service also plays a key role in many smaller cities and towns and rural areas.

The initiative has already gained support from a diverse range of mayors including big cities (Michael Bloomberg of New York, Vincent Gray of Washington, D.C., Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles,  Rahm Emanuel of Chicago), to mid-size cities (Mark Stodola of Little Rock, Richard Berry of Albuquerque, NM; Jim Suttles of Omaha, NE; and Scott Smith of Mesa, AZ; U.S. Conference of Mayors Vice President) and smaller cities (Walter Maddox of Tuscaloosa,  AL; Robert Macdonald of Lewiston, ME; and John Engen of Missoula, MT).  A full list is available here.

On the Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service, mayors will participate in a variety of activities, including visiting national service programs, hosting roundtables at City Hall, issuing proclamations, and communicating about national service through social media. Participating in the day will highlight the importance of citizen service, show support for nonprofit and national service groups, recognize the role national service members play in focusing community volunteers and inspire more residents to serve in their communities.

For more information on the Mayors Day of Recognition for National Service, including background and participating mayors, visit www.nationalservice.gov/mayorsforservice.

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The Corporation for National and Community Service is a federal agency that engages more than four million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and other programs, and leads the President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visit www.nationservice.gov.

Austin, Texas; Buffalo, N.Y.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Savannah, Ga.; and Virginia Beach, Va., were the grant winners announced today by the American Heart Association and Cities of Service, a bi-partisan coalition of more than 150 mayors who have committed to using service to address pressing local needs.

The training kit grants will support the implementation of the Cities of Service Volunteer CPR Blueprint, a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor’s office partners with local medical professionals and emergency responders to train volunteers to use the lifesaving Hands-Only CPR technique. The Blueprint calls for the volunteers who are trained by professionals to teach CPR to at least five other residents, vastly improving a community’s ability to respond to sudden cardiac emergencies. Each grant is valued at $20,000.

“The more people who are trained in CPR, the more lifesavers we have in communities who can act as first responders when citizens go into cardiac arrest,” said American Heart Association president Donna Arnett, Ph.D. “Getting people at a grassroots level to not only learn Hands-Only CPR, but to share it with others, is one way the American Heart Association is working to ensure all Americans know the simple steps to save a life with Hands-Only CPR.”

The Hands-Only CPR Training Kit grant program is part of the American Heart Association’s national Hands-Only CPR campaign, which is supported by a three-year, $4.5 million grant from the WellPoint Foundation. The campaign uses public service announcements, social media and a multi-state mobile training tour to teach the Hands-Only CPR method as part of an aim to double the rate of survival from cardiac arrest by 2020.

Nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States, and 89 percent of Americans die because they don’t receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. Hands-Only CPR is a quick, easy way to save more lives. If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, (1) Call 9-1-1; and (2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Doing these compressions at the proper beat can more than double a person’s chances of survival; coincidentally, the proper beat matches the classic Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive.”

“The Volunteer CPR Blueprint is a tested service strategy that has helped mayors train more than 150,000 Americans in Hands-Only CPR,” said Katie Leonberger of the Cities of Service coalition. “We’re thrilled to partner with the American Heart Association to spread this life-saving technique to more cities and thousands more Americans nationwide.”

Details on the grant recipients:

Austin, Texas: The City of Austin’s goal is to train at least 500,000 people (roughly half of its resident population) in the next 10 years; these kits will help in meeting that goal. So far, more than 10,000 people have been trained in Hands-Only CPR, ultimately improving the city’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate from less than 7 percent to more than 13 percent, and improving the bystander CPR rate to 44 percent.

Buffalo, New York: The City of Buffalo aims to use the kits to train 6,000 city residents in CPR training sessions led by local emergency responders, health agencies, and volunteers. Buffalo will implement the Hands-Only CPR technique in schools to better equip teachers, professionals, and families for emergency preparedness.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The City of Milwaukee’s goal, through a partnership between the Mayor’s Office and the Fire Department, is to train the city’s 70,000-plus college students, employees of large companies, and targeted high-risk communities.

Savannah, Georgia: The City of Savannah’s goal is to conduct an intensive Volunteer CPR initiative throughout 2013 with the help of a broad coalition of community service providers. The program will be coordinated through a partnership between the City and Saving Lives In Chatham County, Inc. (SLICC), a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to training citizens to recognize and treat cardiac arrests and strokes.

Virginia Beach, Virginia: The City of Virginia Beach’s goal is to work with their Emergency Medical Service to train a total of 5,000 residents in Hands-Only CPR – which will be accomplished by training 1,000 local residents using CPR Anytime Kits and encouraging them to train at least four additional friends and relatives.

Cities interested in the grant program or joining the Cities of Service coalition can email info@citiesofservice.org to learn how to get involved.

For more information about Cities of Service, visit www.citiesofservice.org and to learn more about Hands-Only CPR, visit www.heart.org/handsonlycpr.

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About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – America’s No. 1 and No. 4 killers. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook http://facebook.com/AmericanHeart and Twitter http://twitter.com/American_Heart.

About Cities of Service

Founded in September 2009 in New York City by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and 16 other mayors from across the nation, Cities of Service is a bipartisan coalition of mayors committed to addressing critical city needs through impact volunteering. American cities face serious challenges and many mayors want to take advantage of every resource available to them – including the time and energy of public-spirited residents – to address those challenges. But in cities across America today, citizen service is often an underutilized or inefficiently utilized strategy by municipal governments. By leveraging citizen service strategies, Cities of Service helps mayors address local needs and make government more effective. To learn more, visit citiesofservice.org or follow us on Twitter @CitiesofService.

About WellPoint Foundation

The WellPoint Foundation is the philanthropic arm of WellPoint, Inc. and through charitable contributions and programs, the Foundation promotes the inherent commitment of WellPoint, Inc. to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that WellPoint, Inc. and its affiliated health plans serve. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These disease states and medical conditions include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s annual associate giving campaign and provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges. To learn more about the WellPoint Foundation, please visit www.wellpointfoundation.org.

Contact:

Kate Lino

American Heart Association

214.706.1325

Kate.lino@heart.org

A decade ago, that would be hard to imagine. Certainly mayors on occasion used the bully pulpit to call for civic engagement and enjoyed handing out Thanksgiving turkeys at soup kitchens. These traditional activities, however well-intended, fall outside the purview of what Reimagining Service calls a service enterprise – entities that target volunteers strategically to address high priority community needs.

Then in 2009, Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided to make New York City the first “City of Service,” creating a high-impact service plan and appointing the nation’s first Chief Service Officer, a senior city official dedicated to developing a citywide volunteer service plan to address priority city challenges. NYC Service, the unit of the mayor’s office charged with implementing this plan and measuring its results, engaged New Yorkers to participate in volunteer-driven initiatives that best fit their. (Today those projects range from “Cool Roofs” — coating rooftops with reflective paint to conserve energy and reduce building carbon emissions — to contributing to the Hurricane Sandy recovery effort.)

Other mayors followed suit. Sixteen mayors joined Mayor Bloomberg to launch Cities of Service, a bipartisan coalition of mayors committed to using citizen service to address pressing local challenges. Today, more than 150 mayors have joined the coalition, pledging to develop coordinated strategies to deploy volunteers to meet their cities’ greatest needs. With support from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Rockefeller Foundation, 20 mayors appointed their own Chief Service Officers who developed high-impact service plans for their cities. This launched a national movement, which includes over 30 mayors who are employing locally funded Chief Service Officers in their administrations today.

These cities have launched dozens of service enterprises of their own, enlisting local nonprofits, businesses, and residents in their efforts. For example, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl targeted the 20,000 blighted properties in Pittsburgh neighborhoods as a major challenge. He identified Love Your Block, based on the Cities of Service Blueprint of the same name, as a strategy to address this problem. Nonprofit organizations and community groups were invited to propose volunteer-led projects to transform their blocks with a small grant and help from key City departments. With grant money, the selected groups purchased equipment and supplies, engaged their neighbors, and rolled up their sleeves to carry out their own brands of block beautification and repair.

In 2011, Pittsburgh exceeded its goal of improving 10 blocks through Love Your Block nearly fivefold, revitalizing 47 blocks, creating 16 green spaces, and removing nearly 6,000 pounds of trash. Other projects included a popup café, community gardens, rain gardens, memorial restorations, an athletic complex renovation, and vacant lot remediation. Based on the success of year one, Pittsburgh continued Love Your Block for a second year, with a goal of completing 50 additional block revitalization projects.

Other cities have carried out similarly impact-focused initiatives. In Baltimore, volunteers who once were substance abusers are helping others end their addiction through Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s Recovery Corps. In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael A. Nutter has made volunteer “Graduation Coaches” part of his city-wide initiative to reduce the dropout rate. And in Little Rock, Mayor Mark Stodola’s “Love Your School” initiative is addressing the high childhood obesity rate through volunteer-led nutrition and exercise programs.

Shrinking city budgets and growing demand for services may well have spurred on the Cities of Service movement. And in many cities, including Little Rock, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh, AmeriCorps VISTA members are behind the scenes, managing the volunteers and building connections across organizations. With AmeriCorps funding at risk in Washington, scaling these projects may be slow. Nonetheless, it’s not a stretch to imagine a future where volunteers play a central role in local efforts everywhere as mayors turn to them not out of desperation for resources, but as Reimagining Service envisions, out of appreciation for the impact they can achieve through service.

Shirley Sagawa is the author of The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers are Transforming America, a consultant to Cities of Service, and a member of the Reimagining Service Council.

Read the post from Reimagining Service

“A student’s ability to read proficiently by third grade is a proven marker of future success in school, leading to graduation, career and college,” said Mayor Cox. “Chula Vista’s partnership with Cities of Service has resulted in many positive outcomes, and the Third Grade Reads program is yet another opportunity for mentors to have a positive impact on younger students through the simple act of reading.”

Collaborating with the school district and a local nonprofit, Chula Vista will match 200 of the highest need students across four elementary schools with volunteer tutors to improve their reading levels and will measure their results.

Read the article from the San Diego Union-Tribune

Read the Cities of Service Third Grade Reads Blueprint