Four cities recognized for cultural diversity programs
The National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials (NBC-LEO), a constituency group of the Washington-based National League of Cities (NLC), has recognized four cities for implementing programs in their communities aimed at enhancing and promoting cultural diversity. The announcement of the City Cultural Diversity Awards came Monday during NBC-LEO’s annual Celebrate Diversity Breakfast on the first day of NLC’s Congressional City Conference in Washington.
The 2010 City Cultural Diversity Awards recipients are Enterprise, Ala.; Woodridge, Ill.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Milwaukee. Cities chosen as runners-up include Las Cruces, N.M.; Gainesville, Fla.; and Fort Worth, Texas. The award-winning city programs include:
• Enterprise hosted the Aviation Expo highlighting American, German and Russian military history, culture and traditions, including aircraft and food from different cultures. The event drew more than 5,000 people, including international flight students from South America and the Middle East stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala.
• Woodridge formed the Woodridge Diversity Committee, which worked with youth to coordinate the development of the Woodridge Diversity Quilt to celebrate and educate on the benefits of a diverse community.
• Colorado Springs hosted the “Everybody Welcome: A Celebration of Culture and Diversity,” a festival featuring dance, poetry and singing from various African, Native American, Indian, Asian and Caribbean cultures.
• Milwaukee’s Emerging Business Enterprise Program and Milwaukee Opportunities for Restoring Employment ordinance aim to attract and maintain minority businesses throughout the city. The ordinance requires city contracts to engage emerging businesses, incorporate a prevailing wage requirement, provide apprenticeship training and employment opportunities for low-income residents and operate a trades employment pool to be tapped by contractors.
NBC-LEO established the City Cultural Diversity Awards program in 1995 to promote cultural diversity in community governance through citizen and community participation. Winning cities are selected from a pool of applicants and are grouped according to population.
Learn more about the City Cultural Diversity Awards and read more information on the Congressional City Conference.
