Hampton Featured in New Report on
Innovative City Leadership for Children and Families

October 16, 2009

Washington, DC - A new report by the National League of Cities (NLC), The State of City Leadership for Children and Families in 2009, recognizes Hampton, Va., for its cutting-edge Youth Civic Engagement initiative.

The report is being released during the 2009 National Summit on Your City's Families. For more information on the summit, visit www.nlc.org/iyef.

Even as cities grapple with the worst budget outlook in decades, mayors and other municipal leaders have maintained a strong commitment to children, youth and their families. The report describes local innovations and trends in education, early childhood success, afterschool, youth in transition, youth violence prevention, community wellness, youth civic engagement, family economic success, and local "infrastructure" - such as cross-agency planning entities, data sharing efforts and creative financing mechanisms - to support children and families.

"In recent years, cities have tested creative approaches to some of the nation's greatest challenges and achieved impressive results," said Clifford M. Johnson, executive director of NLC's Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF Institute), which published the report. "NLC applauds municipal leaders in Hampton for breaking new ground and inspiring other cities across the country to take their efforts to the next level."

The State of City Leadership report highlights the Hampton Youth Civic Engagement initiative as one of the nation's three most innovative city models for promoting youth participation in local government. For nearly 20 years, Hampton's Coalition for Youth and Alternatives Inc., have worked to offer numerous pathways toward youth civic engagement, from volunteer opportunities and advisory positions to leadership roles on city boards, commissions and departments. In addition to sponsoring a strong youth commission, Hampton involves more than 100 youth who work, intern or volunteer with the city.

"Children, youth and families have been at the top of our city's agenda for a very long time," said Mayor Molly Joseph Ward. "We believe that our efforts to engage our young people help us make better decisions about how to serve them and their families. We believe our investment in them makes our city a better place."

The report provides a snapshot of the progress cities have made as the nation's largest network of public policy "laboratories" and the potential for future action as municipal leaders identify and share promising approaches in these areas. The innovations and trends included in the report were selected based on the YEF Institute's intensive work with thousands of municipal officials in hundreds of cities over the past 10 years, as well as an open call for nominations and targeted outreach to other national organizations in the field.

The National League of Cities is the nation's oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans.