Media Advisory
Partners for Livable Communities to Host Annual Awards Ceremony
What: Partners for Livable Communities’ Celebration of Vision and Community Spirit Awards Ceremony
Where: The Fairfax Hotel at Embassy Row 2100 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20008
When: Thursday, February 21, 2013 6:30-10:00 pm
Who:
Recipients to be honored: Volkswagen Group of America; ROMA Design Group; Louisville, Kentucky’s “55,000 Degrees” Campaign; former mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, George Latimer; Susan Rodgerson; Jonathan Barnett; and Jeff Cook.
Award presenters: Mayor Ron Littlefield of Chattanooga, Tennessee; former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Swanee Hunt; former director of the Department of Housing for the City of Pittsburgh, Paul Brophy; Mayor Chris Coleman of Saint Paul, Minnesota; Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, Kentucky; Vate Powell of MTV Networks, and former chairman of the City Planning Commission of the City of New York, Donald Elliott.
An additional tribute by Jim Rogers, former recipient of the Bridge Builders Award, will be shared via prepared remarks.
Obama Administration Representative: Deputy Director of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs for the Executive Office of the President, Jay Williams.
Syndicated columnist, lead organizer of Citiscope.org, and Citistates Group Chairman, Neal Peirce, will emcee the ceremony.
Visuals: Photo opportunity with featured guests.
Additional Information: Description of Award Recipients:
Bridge Builders Award
Volkswagen Group of America, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for their longstanding commitment to sustainable mobility, environmentally responsible manufacturing, and maintaining corporate social responsibility. Volkswagen group has a clear goal: to be the world’s most successful automobile manufacturer and the leading light when it comes to sustainability. Volkswagen is a central partner of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s vision of revitalization with its emphasis on a clean and healthy environment.
Charles Ansbacher Award for Culture and Community
Susan Rodgerson for addressing the need of art education and awareness for youth in America. During her years as a middle school art teacher in Boston, Rodgerson addressed the lack of art experiences in schools, which led her to create Artists for Humanity (AFH). AFH is an entrepreneurial venture that produces and markets paintings that reflects the voice and vision of the diversity of urban communities to the Boston business community.
Investors in America Award
ROMA Design Group for their commitment to beautifying the American landscape and making a positive impact in neighborhoods, communities, and cities around the country. Under the leadership of Boris Dramov and Bonnie Fisher, the ROMA Design Group has been known for its efforts to revitalize urban areas. In 2000, the ROMA Design Group won an international architectural competition, among 1,000 entries, to design the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
George Brady Memorial Award
George Latimer for his transformative work in the city of Saint Paul, Minnesota. During his tenure as Mayor of Saint Paul, Latimer created the Riverfront Commission, which led to the cleanup, improvement, and development of the Mississippi Riverfront. Latimer is a national leader in promoting affordable housing, including work as the Director of Special Projects of HUD and sitting on the board of the AFL-CIO Housing Trust.
Entrepreneurial American Community Award
Louisville’s “55,000 Degrees” Campaign for increasing educational attainment possibilities for the citizens of Louisville. A group of local organizations began a campaign to develop programs that decrease high school dropout rates and strengthens college students’ chances of completing their degrees. The main goal of 55,000 Degrees is to add at least 40,000 bachelor’s degrees and 15,000 associate degrees, which will make Louisville a competitive and attractive world city.
Lifetime Achievement Award
John “Jeff” Cook, Jr. for his leadership in educating, training, and guiding the environmental workforce, the non-profit sector and social entrepreneurs. Cook founded the Environmental Interns Project, which grew into The Environmental Careers Organization. ECO has become a respected national leader in the development of new environmental professionals, leaders, and citizens.
William H. Whyte Award
Jonathan Barnett for his contributions to the urban planning and design realm. Barnett’s substantive work in regional planning, urban design, and academia is recognized around the country. He was awarded the Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban Design and Regional Planning as well as the Athena Medal from the Congress for the New Urbanism. Currently, he serves as the director of the urban design program at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a professor of practice in urban and regional planning.
Contact: Kim Hallums, Communications Associate, Partners for Livable Communities: (202) 887-5990 x106,
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by JiHoo Moon [Luna]
on February 08, 2013
An international NGO, the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) is a hub for innovating and developing quality of life for aging populations and communities overall. In a partnership with Turyak Seniors Council Association, IFA is holding a series of transformative policy and practice discussions during the first International Istanbul Initiative on Ageing (IIIA) on October 4-6, 2013 in Istanbul. Covering the regions of the Middle East, Northern Africa, Eastern Europe, and neighboring countries of Turkey, the program discovers prospective opportunities along with the addressing the growing aging population.
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The Maricopa Association of Governments in Phoenix recently received a $150,000 grant from the Pfizer Foundation and Grantmakers in Aging to develop business plans and expertise to move forward with its Aging In Place initiatives. The organization will also use the funding in order to create a website for older adults which helps them remain in the Phoenix, Arizona area as they get older. Phoenix is currently one of five cities Partners for Livable Communities chose to participate in their 2012 MetLife City Leaders Institute on Aging In Place program, and this grant is a giant step forward in their progress towards building an age-friendly environment that provides older individuals with the necessary resources so they can remain in their homes and communities as they continue to age. To learn more about Phoenix’s aging initiatives and the grant they received please click here.
The MetLife Foundation and Generations United have teamed up to search for the best intergenerational communities in the country. As part of their 2013 Best Intergenerational Communities Awards, the MetLife Foundation and Generations United will select up to five communities in the United States based on standard criteria that take into account a community’s own demographics, services, programs and organizational structure. The selected communities will receive a public recognition event in Washington, DC including visits with members of Congress, national and local media exposure, a profile on Generations United’s website, publicity through Generations United’s social media outlets (e.g. Facebook and Twitter), and recognition at the 2013 Generations United International Conference. Winning communities will also receive an award logo for use on websites and other materials, and a physical award recognizing this accomplishment. The deadline to nominate your community is November 30, 2012. To learn more about the awards or to nominate your community, please visit the Generations United Website.
This year the World Wildlife Foundation is encouraging cities to reduce their carbon footprint and to prepare for increasingly extreme weather conditions through their Earth Hour City Challenge. The Earth Hour City Challenge is a year long competition during which participating cities will receive resources and gain public recognition for their efforts to promote renewable energy and prepare for the future. The deadline to apply for the challenge is November 19, 2012. To learn more about the competition, or to sign your city up please visit the Earth Hour City Challenge website.
“I know that we—the American people—have the ability: to lead the world; to meet today’s energy challenges; to cross the bridge to a cleaner, more secure world; and most importantly, to leave our grandchildren with a place where they can thrive.” – Jim Rogers at the 2012 Democratic National Convention
After welcoming and thanking all those who helped make the 2012 Democratic National Convention possible in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jim Rogers, co-chair of the Charlotte Host Committee at the Convention, began his address by proclaiming that he was not there as a, “Democrat, Republican, policy pundit, or CEO,” but rather, he was there as a concerned grandfather. Rogers continued with his speech by calling for a more broad based long-term effort toward a future of affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy. He went on to state that, “energy is more than a partisan issue. It’s an American issue. And a global issue.”
Jim Rogers’s commitment to identifying and implementing better practices for cleaner and more efficient energy sources has made him a leading figure in not only the energy industry, but the entire environmental movement. As chairman, president, and CEO of Duke Energy, one of the nation’s leading energy providers, Rogers’s prestigious career in the world of energy and politics began after being hired as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, where he advocated for the state’s consumers in gas, electric, and telephone rate cases. He was then appointed to Deputy General Counsel for litigation and enforcement for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and Executive Vice President of interstate pipeline for the Enron Gas Pipeline Group. After joining PSI Energy as the company’s chairman, president, and CEO in 1988, he served as chairman and CEO of Cinergy for more than 11 years before its merger with Duke Energy.
In addition, Rogers has been recognized as one of the most outspoken and respected figures worldwide in the energy industry. In 2011, Rogers was awarded the Asia Society of Washington’s International Business Leadership Award, as well as U.S.-China Policy Foundation’s Global Executive Leadership Award for his work with China to help strengthen the relationship between the two nations, and bring energy to the forefront of global issues. Rogers has testified more than 20 times before U.S. Congressional Committees, has spoken at international forums such as the United Nations General Assembly, the World Economic Forum, the Clinton Global Initiative, and in 2009, Newsweek named him one of “The 50 Most Powerful People in the World.”
Rogers has also done extensive civic work in his current hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, co-chairing the city’s $82 million campaign to construct a new cultural campus in uptown Charlotte, and by co-chairing Charlotte’s committee to bring the 2012 Democratic National Convention to the city.
Duke Energy has been the largest electric power holding company in the United States for years, supplying energy to approximately 7 million U.S. customers, and was recently named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for North America for the seventh consecutive year. With Jim Rogers leading the way, not only does Duke Energy have a bright future ahead of them, but the rest of the world, and especially his grandchildren do as well.
Mark your Calendar!
The Call for Session Proposals (CFSP) for the 12th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference is just around the corner! The conference will be held February 7-9, 2013 in Kansas City, MO.
The CFSP Online Submittal Form and Instructions will be available on the conference web site NEXT WEEK! The CFSP process is open from May 14 through June 30, 2012 at http://www.newpartners.org/program/cfsp/.
Follow the New Partners for Smart Growth conference on our web site at www.NewPartners.org, or on Facebook and Twitter for updates, information and post-conference networking!
Partners for Livable Communities presents a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the 2012 Stories for Change report. This presentation is for community residents, city leaders, arts and cultural institutions, and many more to share the great stories of innovation and creativity featured in the Stories for Change report to begin discussions of reaching out to older adults and immigrants with the community.
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The D.C. Office of Planning (OP) has awarded a $75,000 “ArtPlace Arts and Culture Temporium” grant to Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) to develop and manage temporiums in underutilized spaces in the Deanwood neighborhood, one of the District’s earliest African American communities.
Under this grant, Partners will develop and manage DeanwoodxDesign, a project that showcases the rich arts, cultural, historical, and green space assets of Deanwood and Ward 7 through a community-wide, intergenerational, and collaborative effort. This project engages artists and a diverse network of Deanwood institutions and stakeholders to cultivate community pride, showcase and create great art, and invigorate the creative economy.
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Terms:Announcements, Arts & Culture, CBC Best Practice, CBC Event, Community Building, Community Engagement, Creative Economy, Culture Builds Communities, Design, Multicultural, Neighborhood Revitalization, Placemaking, Public Art, Public-Private Partnerships, Urban, Washington, DC
Partners announces the launching of the City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place (CLI), a one-year, pilot program focused on making local-level changes to facilitate aging in place.
This program is funded by MetLife Foundation and implemented by Partners for Livable Communities (Partners).
As part of this program, five Civic Teams were invited to participate as part of the 2012-2013 class. Each team has identified a specific goal for the year-long program.
- Arlington County, Virginia, aims to create a walkable, livable, urban environment that enhances welcoming connections and eliminates barriers between and among places, and enables all people to work, live, play, and visit in Arlington.
- Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, Florida, aims to identify and develop a platform to educate older people, public officials, and the community-at-large about issues related to elderly pedestrians, drivers, mass transit users, and travelers.
- Montgomery County, Maryland, aims to develop and implement a nonprofit and faith-based summit to clarify the needs of affordable, alternative housing options for older adults.
- Phoenix, Arizona, aims to develop new and enhanced service delivery mechanisms to connect older adults with their peers and with the community, to provide relevant activities and services, and to leverage their talents.
- San Diego, California, aims to increase community health and wellness among youngsters and older adults in the City of La Mesa and the La Mesa Spring Valley School District by implementing an intergenerational Safe Routes to School program and other strategic plans focused on health and wellbeing in this community.
Read more »
Terms:2012, Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, AIP Event, AIP Press/Media, AIP Report/Publication, Announcements, City Leaders Institute on Aging in Place, Partners, Partners Events, Services
Stories for Change: Leadership Examples of Expanding Arts to New Audiences
A Report from Partners for Livable Communities Funded by MetLife Foundation
Stories for Change, a report by Partners for Livable Communities funded by MetLife Foundation, offers leadership examples that expand the arts to new audiences. This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations.
Stories for Change broadens the scope of Partners’ 2011 report, Culture Connects All: Rethinking Audiences in Times of Demographic Change, which describes the innovative programs of arts organizations in six major American cities. It shows that arts and culture are as essential to sustaining communities as bricks and mortar.
Partners for Livable Communities’ 2011 publication, Culture Connects All, was featured in the winter 2012 issue of Preserving Your Memory, a magazine supported by the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. Sam Gaines’ article, Making the Connection, outlines the publication’s key objectives, and its recommendations to arts and cultural organizations pursuing arts programs to reach out to diverse audiences. Funded by MetLife Foundation, Culture Connects All was published in 2011 to showcase cultural institutions using innovative strategies or programs to engage two of America’s fastest- growing populations: older adults and immigrants.
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Partners for Livable Communities will honor eight individuals and organizations for stewardship and innovation in the improvement of communities worldwide. These prestigious awards will be presented by Washington, D.C.-based Partners for Livable Communities at its Celebration of Vision and Community Spirit.
The “Celebration of Vision and Community Spirit” awards honor both innovative projects in communities and lifetimes of achievement for individuals that have made a true difference in their respective fields of activity. The honorees represent lifetimes of cultivating the arts, historic preservation, regionalism, smart planning practices and neighborhood development that bring life to struggling communities. All of the honorees have sought to build on their assets and improve the communities around them, an effort which Partners believes deserves to be lauded, with individual stories spread far and wide.
Read more »
Register Now for the 11th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference
February 2-4, 2012 in San Diego, CA.
This conference is the premier smart growth event held in the U.S. each year. The multi-disciplinary program includes over 100 sessions and will feature cutting-edge policies, programs and projects, best practices, and the latest strategies and implementation tools that address the challenges of making communities more sustainable and equitable. Lots of “extras” are included such as; coordinated networking activities, continuing education credits, on-site Internet café, and so much more!
Get connected! “Like” the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference on Facebook and “Follow” the program on Twitter at @NewPartnersConf
More than a decade since the release the innovative original, Partners for Livable Communities announces the release of the second edition of its Community Empowerment Manual (preview copy). Expanded and reorganized by former staff member, Carly Grimm, the new edition builds on the tried-and-true approaches to community development showcased in the original, and invigorates the document with new case studies and a new section that helps readers better understand the challenges to livability—aging population, deteriorating infrastructure, and declining local economies—that exist in American communities.
The first edition of the manual was published in 1999, and was the culmination of four years of work and collaboration with communities across the United States and Europe, with support from Bank of America, the Healy foundation, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. It was met with great success and featured in Governing Magazine.
The new edition could not come at a better time, as more communities are facing fiscal constraints. To maximize assets over the next decade, communities will need to be more self-sufficient, and the Community Empowerment Manual, with its focus on making the most of community resources, is a valuable tool for pursing livability from a local level.
More than just a primer on livability, the Community Empowerment Manual is a workbook for community development that educates readers about leadership strategies, effective collaboration, creating regional partnerships, and developing and realizing a vision. The Community Empowerment Manual is a valuable guide for:
- Citizens—both those currently engaged and those frustrated by lack of action
- Local government officials
- Community organizers
- Civic leaders
- Non-profits and NGOs
- Business organizations
- Social agencies
- Educational and cultural institutions
Free preview here.
Purchase Print Edition
($15)
Purchase PDF Version
($5)
In the recent online poll, conducted by Outdoor Magazine, Chattanooga was recently voted by readers as the top choice in the “Best Town Ever” contest of 2011.
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by Chelsea Weinberg
on August 09, 2011
Tuesday August 9th will be a big day of change for former Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio and Partners Trustee Jay Williams. Williams will be taking up his new appointment by President Obama as the Director of the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers which assists areas of the country negatively affected by the retrenchment of the auto industry to identify federal resources that may be used as part of their recovery efforts. By virtue of his being mayor of the largest community in the Mahoning Valley, Williams has had a front-row seat to the reorganization of the auto industry.
Jay Williams was instrumental in helping Partners develop its Institutions as Fulcrums of Change program strategy; which focused on how we can use libraries, museums, performing arts centers, boys and girls clubs, and chambers of commerce to reposition communities that have suffered devastation in the downturn and in the new economic order, and how can they use their creativity and neutrality to be centers of excellence, i.e. fulcrums of change. With the focus on utilizing anchor institutions as centers of redevelopment in Youngstown, Williams worked with Partners to spear the Ten Living Cities Network, a consortium working for identity preservation and economic resurgence in the Ten U.S. Cities most affected by the post-industrial age.
Prior to his appointment to the Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, Jay Williams was the City of Youngstown’s first African-American mayor, and being first elected at 33 years old, was also it’s youngest. Under the leadership of Mayor Williams, the Youngstown 2010 Vision/Planning “right-sizing” initiative has been recognized and rewarded by a number of notable organizations including, The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report, the American Planning Association, and Governing Magazine. In August 2009, Entrepreneur Magazine listed the city of Youngstown among the ten best cities in the United States to start a business. Mayor Williams was also recognized in 2009 as one of Governing Magazine’s public officials of the year. He was also the recipient of the 2007 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award.
You can read more about Jay Williams appointment from the U.S. Department of Labor
Washington, DC—The Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards 2011 held on June 16, 2011 at the top of PNC Place, were successfully presented to five deserving chambers and communities around the country. Read More to find out the winners.
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The Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards 2011: Recognizing Sustainability Today
Building a Green economy is critical to our future—sustainability is imperative. The 2011 Green Plus Sustainable Enterprise Awards announce the winners of its annual Green Plus Community and Green Plus Chambers from throughout the United States, that are leading in sustainable economic development practices. This event took place on June 16, 2011...click here to read about the awardees
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Partners for Livable Communities Australia and Griffith University Offer the Urban Leadership Certificate
Building better cities with real livability leadership.
July 4 and 5, South Bank, Brisbane.
A professional development initiative hosted by Griffith University and Partners for Livable Communities Australia, and presented in association with the 2011 Asia Pacific Cities Summit.
The Certificate in Urban Leadership is focused on giving participants new skills and ideas they can apply in their own city. Theory and case studies from academic, government and professional livability experts is combined with stimulating group project work.
This process gives participants the opportunity to:
- Workshop liveability opportunities and challenges with academics, professionals, and your peers
- Hear challenges and innovative solutions from colleagues in cities from around the world
- Take home ideas and learnings in a template that can guide thinking in your own city.
Discover the vital ingredients of a livable city. Focus on stimulating your city’s potential. And take home practical examples of how to build a better city with a real competitive advantage.
Click here for more information.
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