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.
Pottawattamie County, Iowa
By Cynthia Hobgood
The largest county in Iowa, Pottawattamie contains communities diverse in size with a total of fourteen incorporated municipalities with populations ranging from 128 to 59,347. The county, just under 1,000 square miles, recognizes the diversity of its communities and has made great efforts to tailor strategies to each community based on their unique resources and challenges.
Promise Partners, Pottawattamie County Alliance for Youth, has developed the infrastructure to leverage the collective power of youth serving agencies, public and private sectors, business, faith, civic, elected officials, health, education, parents and youth to increase the success of fulfilling all Five Promises to every age child and youth in the community. Since adopting the America’s Promise framework, Promise Partners has strategically developed strategies tailored to each community in the county around each of the Promises.
The county’s vision is that every child, beginning at birth will be healthy and successful. The community plan for early childhood includes the following funding priorities provide parent education, health services, and support provide access to quality, comprehensive and affordable early childhood education programs and provide access to quality and affordable child care for children.
Some of the initiatives in Pottawattamie County that led to its selection as one of 100 Best Communities for Young People include:
Youth Leadership Institute:
Developed in partnership with the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce and modeled after the Chamber Adult Leadership series. A youth board is being established for Promise Partners. Youth will be charged with developing an RFP process for each community in the county to provide safe activities during non-school hours reviewing and scoring the applications, make the funding decisions, and reviewing end results.
Career Vision:
The purpose of this initiative is to form a multi-high school post-secondary educational partnership of career academies throughout the county. Designed from an analysis of regional occupational trend data, the primary goal of Career Vision is to ensure that students are college ready, career ready, responsible citizens prepared for the demands and dynamics of global, high tech knowledge work economy and the next job market.
Drop-In Assessment Center:
Developed to help fight the high school dropout rate, this center is a place where kids can come to learn at night and additional emphasis on transitioning students from middle school to high school.
Leadership and Resiliency Program:
This evidence-based program in two of the consolidated rural school districts targets youth ages 14-19 that enhance internal strengths and resilience, while preventing involvement in risky behaviors. The program components include weekly resiliency groups, alternative adventure activities such as ropes courses, and community service in which participants are active in a number of community- and school-focused projects.
A Youth Leadership Institute was developed in partnership with the Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce and modeled after the Chamber Adult Leadership series. A youth board is being established for the Promise Partners. Youth will be charged with developing an RFP process for each community in the county to provide safe activities during non-school hours reviewing and scoring the applications, make the funding decisions, and reviewing end results.
Future looks even brighter for the youth of Pottawattamie County. Promise Partners, Pottawattamie Alliance for Youth has adopted America's Promise framework to develop a comprehensive plan for youth. Current plan priorities include providing parent education, health services, and support for all children ages through age five.