Highlighting America’s 100 Best Communities for Young People
The 100 Best Communities for Young People competition honors outstanding efforts on behalf of young people by multiple sectors of communities. In cities, suburbs, small towns and counties across the country, this annual competition is leading communities to assess their efforts, work more effectively together for young people, and share best practices. Each week one of the 2007 100 Best Communities will be highlighted in the America’s Promise Bulletin and on our web site.
Mason City, Iowa
By Cynthia Hobgood
With a youth task force at the center of its efforts to provide a quality environment for young people, Mason City, Iowa it’s not hard to see why was named one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People in 2007.
Mason City has a long-standing cultural and historical heritage, with a standard of art and music excellence that has fostered a strong work ethic and goal-oriented attitude in its youth. Mason City is home to several structures designed by noted architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as other Prairie-style architecture, and the restored boyhood home of Meredith Wilson, a well-known musician and composer. These rare historical landmarks draw people from all over the world and expose youth to opportunities of historical significance.
The Mason City Youth Task Force (YTF) has involved a broad spectrum of the community since 1994, including schools, law enforcement, local and State government, faith and business communities, and local youth-serving organizations and agencies, as well as parents and youth. Leadership is provided by an Executive Committee of eight adults and four youth.
Mason County has moved from an environment of “doing for” our kids to “doing with” them and as a result, Mason City youth increasingly report that they feel valued in their community. The YTF partners with the schools to coordinate Youth Action Teams at all three Mason City high schools that take on service projects such as lobbying at the State level for Keg Registration legislation, conducting community inventories for resources and risks, sponsoring a shadowing project each year culminating in a community youth forum. Youth also volunteer with adults on coalition Promise Teams to work on community strategies. The Mason City Recreation Department and the local children's theatre have appointed non-voting youth representatives to their governance boards. In 2000, YTF member even ran for Mayor as a high school senior, finishing a close second in the race.
Some of the initiatives that led to this community’s recognition as a 2007 100 Best community include:
Youth Leadership
Training: sponsored annually by the Chamber of Commerce engages 20 high school juniors and co-facilitates, with the Youth Task Force, a 15-week youth leadership program with various businesses and organizations donating services as presenters.
YTF Mentoring Program:
A partnership between the local schools and the YTF, involving adults mentoring students in school or in the community. Local businesses and agencies allow their staff to take an hour a week from their work to mentor. This program has grown from 20 to 42 matches in the past 3 years.
Peer Mentoring Programs:
Partnerships with the YTF, the recreation department, Headstart, and child care centers, have expanded to provide 50 local youth volunteers peer mentoring experiences.
One of the biggest challenges Mason City recently faced was the existing tolerant views on underage drinking, which resulted in a high level of adolescent alcohol use. 100 percent of focus group participants felt availability, acceptance and peer pressure were top factors to youth alcohol use and 73 percent of 11th-graders believed alcohol was easy to obtain. The YTF and community partners worked to address this social norm. Alcohol use reduction strategies for youth included implementation of prevention curriculums at school, production of a brochure on how Iowa licenses are affected by underage alcohol use, and an inventory of safe, drug-free community places for youth to gather was distributed. As a result of these efforts, students reported that 30-day alcohol use decreased 70% from 1996-2005.
While already doing good work for and with youth in the community, Mason City continues to plan new programs. The school district has a Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, and the county health department has recently updated their comprehensive plan which includes youth objectives. The YTF Community Youth Development Plan is focusing on young peoples’ development in all sectors of the community.