Congrats, Richmond, on being chosen to participate in the second round of cities to be funded $200,000 over two years as part of the Cities of Service! (link to original story — thanks to David Necessary for the tip on Twitter)
What does that mean, exactly? I’m glad you asked because I just happened to look it up!
Here is the “About Us” page on Cities of Service — and here is the information on the Cities of Service Leadership Grants
To sum it up,
Cities of Service is a bi-partisan coalition of the mayors of large and small cities from across our country who will work together to engage citizens to address the great challenges of our time. Founded in New York City on September 10, the coalition and its member cities will respond to the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act’s historic call to action by finding new and innovative ways to harness the power of volunteers to help solve pressing local challenges.
And the grant program is:
The Cities of Service Leadership Grants provide recipient cities with $200,000 over a two-year period to hire a Chief Service Officer, a senior city official dedicated to developing and implementing a citywide plan to increase volunteerism and target volunteers to address their city’s greatest needs.
So I guess the next questions are: 1) When will this CSO be getting started?, and 2) Who will it be?
Does anyone have any observations from seeing this CSO working in any of the cities involved in the first round of funding? I’d love to hear what has worked and what could be done better. If we’re going to do this here in Richmond, let’s do it right!
