Announcing the 2012 All-America City Award Video Contest!
Author Archive for Mike McGrath
Mike McGrath is editor of the National Civic Review.
May 4, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Shooting Hoops for Nonprofits
NCL President Gloria-Rubio Cortes scored points for the National Civic League in the Southwest Airlines Hot Shots for Charity at Denver’s Skyline Park today. The airlines teamed up with top business, civic and community leaders who competed on behalf of the nonprofit of their choice. Gloria was up against some formidable opponents, including the former NBA player (Mark Randall) pictured above. Each competitor got 90 seconds to score as many points as they could. The highest point-getter won $5,000 for a designated nonprofit. Participants included KOSI radio personality Murphy Huston and former Denver Mayor Bill Vidal.
April 11, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Register Now for the 2012 All-America City Awards
Link here to register for the 2012 All-American City Awards and Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Communities Network Conference June 30-Jul 2 in Denver, Colorado.
Celebrate the accomplishments of the All-America City finalists and other communities in the network
- Help build the next chapter of the Campaign
- Meet the leading experts
- Discuss policy initiatives with senior state and federal officials
- Compare notes and share stories on the CSAP process
- Capture the lessons and insights
- Celebrate with the Pacesetter honorees and the AAC awardees
The 2012 All-America Cities will be announced 12 noon July 2 at an awards ceremony at the Grand Hyatt Denver.
Make hotel arrangements by linking here.
Find out more about what to do and how to get around in Denver while you are there at our Visit Denver microsite.
April 5, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Mark your calendars for the 2012 All-America City Awards!
Time to make your travel arrangements for the Campaign for Grade Level Reading Network and All-America City Awards, June 30, 2012-July 2, 2012 at the Grand Hyatt Denver, 1750 Welton St. in downtown Denver, Colorado.
The special room rate is $152, single or double occupancy (plus state and local fees). Triple occupancy rates are also available. To get this discounted rate, please make your hotel arrangements through Connections Housing, the National Civic League’s hotel liaison (Link here).
If you want help in registering by phone or for your group, feel free to contact: Rusty Farmer, Connections Housing at 404.842.0000 or rusty@connectionshousing.com
You can also get this discounted rate for sleeping rooms if you want to arrive early or stay beyond the meeting dates. For ground transportation from Denver International Airport and entertainment/restaurant options while you are in Denver link here. To find out about hotel amenities link here.
To keep costs low for participants, there will be no event registration fee. National Civic League (with partners) is raising funds to pay for the meals and other meeting costs.
Book your airline reservations soon to get the lowest rates and to avoid the holiday travel crunch.
March 21, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
More than 100 applications for 2012 All-America City Awards
More than 120 cities, counties and towns have submitted ambitious and sustainable plans to get students on track for grade-level reading by the end of third grade. For 105 of those communities, the plans will also serve as applications for the All-America City awards, which will be held June 30-July 2 in Denver, Colorado.
Each community that submitted a plan will join the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading network, which will provide access to experts, policymakers, and foundations investing in early literacy. The communities—ranging from big cities such as Los Angeles, Boston, and Seattle to smaller places like New Britain, Conn.— (see list here) are addressing what is clearly a national crisis: a full two-thirds of U.S. students, and fourth-fifths of low-income children, fail to become proficient readers in the early grades.
The third grade milestone marks the point when children shift from learning to read and begin reading to learn. Students who haven’t mastered reading by that time are more likely to get stuck in a cycle of academic failure, drop out of school, and struggle throughout their lives.
“The reading problem is stark, but the solutions are clear,” said Ralph Smith, the Annie E. Casey Foundation senior vice president who is managing director of the Campaign. “By working together and focusing on school readiness, attendance, and summer learning, communities can start to improve reading success today.”
Thirty-six of the participating communities have more than 500,000 residents, and 43 have fewer than 100,000. Mayors or county officials lead the effort in 26 communities, and United Way chapters lead in 23. In addition to the support they receive from the Grade-Level Reading network, each community will be included in a national grant registry where their plan can be reviewed by more than 100 foundations and philanthropic donors who fund early childhood and early learning and literacy projects.
“Communities have already won just by applying,” said Gloria Rubio-Cortes, president of the National Civic League, which sponsors the annual All-America City Award. “The act of coming together and creating a plan for improving early learning puts these places ahead. The application process was intended to elicit the best ideas, develop partnerships, and discover program efficiencies to put children on a track to graduation and success.”
March 13, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Online Filing System for The Grade-Level Reading All-America City Award
By Ron Fairchild
Today we are excited to announce that the Community Solutions Action Plan (CSAP) online filing system is now open. (Navigate to the online filing system by clicking the link above or by typing this website address into your browser:https://www.wizehive.com/appform/login/aacapp2012)
After logging in, you will have the option to either upload your application as a file or to write the application in the text fields. Both Microsoft Word and PDF files are acceptable formats for uploaded documents. If you decide to complete the application by completing the text fields, you may do so over a couple of days.
The online filing system will save your content and will not time out. Please remember that all CSAPs should be filed by no later than 11 PM PST on March 12, 2012.
Also, please plan on joining us for our next regularly scheduled webinar this Thursday at, March 8, from 2 to 3:30 pm East. If you haven’t done so already, please click on this link to register.
The focus of this webinar will be on the CSAP follow-up and peer review process. We’ll also discuss our plans for the upcoming meeting of the national network in Denver, CO.
March 5, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Mayor of Lakewood, Colorado’s State of the City Address
During his state of the city speech last week, Mayor Bob Murphy of Lakewood, Colorado, a 2011 All-America City, spoke of the impressive success the city has achieved in recent years—on the economic front, in transit-oriented planning and community amenities.
Equally impressive, though, was the mayor’s willingness to ask: “What can we all do, together, to make life better for all the residents of this community?”
Obviously, we liked the next part:
“The answer, I think, starts with embracing and enhancing the very values that make us an All-America City. The answer lies within taking that great foundation of community we have here and building upon it, neighbor-by-neighbor, block-by-block, with the help of businesses, schools, nonprofits and faith-based organizations – all the sectors whose contributions brought us this prestigious award.”
The mayor goes on to talk about civic engagement, collaboration, innovation and community building. This is what we hope happens when communities win the award, that they will use it not just to celebrate past victories, but think about how they can use it to move forward.
Link here to read the full transcript of Mayor Murphy’s address.
Or watch here:
March 5, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Final blog time for State of the Re:Union
By Mike McGrath
For the past year, I have been contributing guest blogs about AAC for the State of the Re:Union website. SOTRU is changing its online format to focus more on podcasts, so I won’t be guest-blogging there anymore, but here is my farewell piece, an item about a Hawaiian community that won the AAC in 1985.
It’s an interesting story. Link here.
I would like to thank Al and the folks at SOTRU for the opportunity to share stories from past and present All-America Cities and wish them the best for their future endeavors in radio and new media.
March 1, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
Special National Civic Review Issue on Grade Level Reading
The special NCR issue on grade-level reading is now available. Here are a few of the articles:
February 2, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
March 12 Filing date for All-American City Grade-Level Reading Awards
A Message from Ralph Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading:
Last October, more than 160 across the country submitted a letters of intent to participate in the 2012 All-America City Award for Grade-Level Reading and to join the Grade-Level Reading Network of Leading Communities. Civic leaders in most of the communities are now hard at work developing their Community Solutions Action Plans (CSAPs) to respond to three major challenges: too many children not ready for school and too far behind to catch up; too many children missing too many days of school and too much instructional time; and too many children losing ground over the summer months and returning to school in September further behind than when they left in June.
March 12 is the filing date for the CSAP. If your community was among the more than 160 that filed a Letter of Intent, this may be the time to check in with your local team leader. You can:
- Support, encourage, and where necessary nudge the process. Let the Team Leader and her/his team know that participating the Network is important to you.
- Volunteer to help on the task forces and workgroups charged with data gathering, program mapping, and consensus building.
- Monitor progress, nudge, and pitch in. The CSAPs are due on March 12. How is your city coming along?
February 1, 2012 | 0 comments | View Post
