By Erin Wenglekowski
May 12, 2003

Through the partnership with The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The U.S. Conference of Mayors hosted a 3-day conference, May 4- 6 on "Mayors and Working Families" in conjunction with the 27th Annual City Human Services Officials meeting. City Human Services officials from cities across the country joined Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Warwick, (RI) Mayor Scott Avedisian, York, (PA) Mayor John S. Brenner, Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, Petersburg, (VA) Mayor Rosalyn R. Dance, Mount Vernon, (NY) Mayor Ernest Davis, San Antonio Mayor Edward Garza, Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill and Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell.

Campaign for Working Families

Opening the meeting, Conference President Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino thanked the Casey Foundation for their productive partnership with the Conference and called for a continued focus on economic security by addressing the needs of working families. Menino said that mayors are advocates for economic security. "We have worked together to stay focused on working family's issues as the year has gone forward. With the help of the Casey Foundation, we increased our outreach efforts around the earned income tax credit and asked more cities to help families of limited income keep more of that income," Menino said. Many cities including Boston have had major increases in EITC filings this year.

Other working families issues Menino highlighted involved children, education and housing. He praised mayors for caring about "human development, helping people one family, one block, and one neighborhood at a time." He emphasized the need for mayors to learn from each other, and remarked on the importance of the Best Practices publication and how crucial it is to improving metro cities nationwide.

Best Practices Publication & Working Families Policy Paper

Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran reviewed the working families campaign initiatives starting at the 2002 Annual Winter Meeting and last year's Annual Conference in Madison and leadership meetings in Boston and Santa Barbara. Through the partnership, the Casey Foundation and the Conference are examining the needs of working families in today's economy, identifying best practices and devising strategies that link and coordinate resources on behalf of working families.

Cochran announced that the Conference of Mayors was releasing a Best Practices in cities, which highlights what mayors are doing in their cities to contribute to the economic self sufficiency of working families. The publication includes 39 successful initiatives in 27 cities in improving job access and quality employment, rewarding work, increasing assets and strengthening community services. Cochran also announced the publication of a policy paper on the partnership for working families that identifies the problems confronting low-income working families and the U.S. Conference of Mayors established policy to address these problems. To view the Best Practices, Policy paper and for further information on EITC campaigns go to usmayors.org.

Keynote Address: Casey Vice President Ralph Smith

The keynote speaker for the event was Ralph Smith, Vice President of Planning and Development at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He complemented the Conference of Mayors for consistently producing results for the foundation. "Every penny we have invested, has shown a return on our investment," said Smith. He then discussed the importance of the Best Practices publication. Smith said, "The challenge is how we make these best practices common practices."

Smith gave an overview of Casey's framework for family economic success. These include workforce strategies, family economic support and community investment. Smith discussed barriers to family economic success in terms of the high cost of being poor. He noted that the poor pay more for insurance, housing, transportation, daycare, credit, and goods and services including check cashing. In partnership with the Conference, the Casey Foundation aims to assist these families in making better decisions. Smith said, "We need to help people help themselves," stressing the need for literacy and education programs, including credit and financial literacy courses. He said that the country needs to raise public attention on predatory lending companies that prey on the poorest families.

Smith also outlined Casey's focus on the needs of individuals who are returning to their families and communities after incarceration. He asked for assistance from the Conference in addressing these re-entry issues. Smith explained that there has been a significant "escalation in incarcerations; anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 are released from facilities every year." The Foundation wants to be more attentive to helping these people re-attach to their families and communities.

Mayoral Best Practices

San Antonio Mayor Ed Garza, Nashville Mayor Bill Purcell and Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill shared innovative local programs that focused on increasing and supporting the well being of communities and families. Garza's program "Better Jobs" focused on regional partnerships between school districts, businesses, and community-based organizations for better education and better investment opportunities. By "changing the image to ourselves, we change the image to the outside," Garza stated in describing his program.

In Nashville the first day of school in the city is "the most important day of our civic calendar" stated Purcell during the Best Practice session. He was talking about his cities- "First Day of School" initiative, which turns the first day of school into a citywide celebration on the importance of education and parental involvement. Purcell created the initiative as a response to a letter his family received regarding their child's first day of school. The letter stated that parents were not to enter the schools on the first day. Purcell, who was not mayor at the time, and his wife, made it their business to go to the school on that very important first day. Upon taking the helm of the city's highest office, Purcell decided to follow through on his belief that every parent, every adult in the city should be involved in the welfare and success of its city's school system.

The event invites all citizens from the city to attend school on the first day, and is then followed with a festival in the city center. The first year 400 students reported to school for the first day and nearly 10,000 people attended that first year's celebration in the town center. The next year 13,000 citizens attended the citywide celebration of the first day of school, and numbers continue to increase. In addition, Purcell worked with the city's Chamber, universities and businesses in order to give citizens the time off work to attend the first day of school.

O'Neill's "Even Start Literacy Program" gives low-income or residents with limited English skills, the opportunity to acquire qualifications and skills in order to receive better jobs. These skills include reading programs for children, income tax processing for those who are trying to stop receiving welfare and computer skills taught in all libraries. The city also has a citywide book of the month club that included community discussions and theme events around the book's topics. "It became a galvanizing force within our community, stated O'Neill.

Discussion

A roundtable discussion was held between the mayors, human services, workforce development attendees and Ralph Smith on further ways to jointly address issues of family economic success. Purcell, who acted as discussion facilitator, began discussing school readiness and how cities need to clearly define it. "We need to hold the programs accountable," Purcell assured, "and let it be known." He explained that much like the Casey Foundation's vision, "we must focus on the results we want and not to fall in love with any particular program because this turns us against ourselves. We must set out a group of outcomes and then decide which set of programs to pursue." Mount Vernon (NY) Mayor Ernest Davis agreed that we need a Federal stance, a collective decision on how to achieve the results we need.

Purcell called for a national agenda on school readiness. Mayors also further discussed the high cost of being poor and re-entry issues. Ralph Smith announced that a special report on the high cost of being poor will be released this June, as well as the Kids Count report which has national and state-by'state data on the status of children in the United States.

Human Services

Juanita Wade, President of the U.S. Conference of City Human Services Officials and Chief of the Boston Office of Human Services led the discussion on head start reauthorization. Windy Hill, Associate Commissioner, Head Start, at the Department of Health and Human Services, discussed the President's proposal for reauthorizing the Head Start program. The administration proposes a historic shift in the Head Start preschool program for poor youngsters that calls for the federal government to offer states broad new control over decision-makings and replaces the program's traditional mission with an emphasis on literacy. The initiative gives states the opportunity to "opt in" under a flexible block grant program that allows states to become the oversight and distribution of services. This program would be implemented in block grant form, for only those states that choose to submit a plan; it would have to insure that the comprehensive programs would continue with an emphasis on child readiness.

Sarah Greene, President and CEO of the National Head Start Association, does not support the President's proposal. The agency's position is that all the necessary improvements to the program can be accomplished within the current structure of the program. Greene noted that historically head start programs far exceed state-run childcare programs in quality and efficiency. "Every program could use improvements," stated Greene, emphasizing that one improvement that could be accomplished is a way to "find a way to care for children from the pre-natal stages until the age of 5."

By making the program an optional block grant, Helen Blank, said that the entitlement program would then be subjected to the economic shifts and whims of governors. Blank is a consultant on childcare strategies at the National Women Law Center. In its current structure, "there is consistency with the federal to local funding structure. If it is moved to the state level it could be subjected to the same economic shifts and options that current Medicaid options, foster care, section 8 and other state optional programs are seeing right now during this difficult time," concluded Blank.

The remaining discussions centered on other family support programs such as childcare, nutrition services, workforce development and welfare reform. An agenda, participant list, and other discussion summaries can be found at usmayors.org/humanservices.

The Conference will continue its partnership with The Annie E. Casey Foundation to address the needs of working families. For further information on these initiatives, see usmayors.org.