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City of Hollywood Selected as a 2007 All-America City

From the Desk of the City Manager

After an extensive application process and three-day competition in Anaheim, California, the National Civic League (NCL) chose the City of Hollywood, Florida as a 2007 All-America City. The City of Hollywood is one of 10 award winning cities selected by a jury of business, government, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders from across the country. The award came after three days of presentations in which Hollywood City leaders detailed how the City is addressing a wide range of social and economic issues, including early childhood
education, affordable housing and community involvement. This award is a testament to the commitment to excellence of the City's 1,700 full and part-time employees and the culmination of a Citywide master planning initiative adopted in 2000 and shows the City is setting the standard when it comes to our economic development programs and housing initiatives.

For more information, please contact Cameron D. Benson, City Manager, at (954) 921-3201.

THE INITIATIVES THAT HELPED HOLLYWOOD BECOME AN ALL-AMERICA CITY
 

Promoting Cultural Awareness through Volunteerism

We all can benefit from immersing ourselves in new cultures. The City of Hollywood developed an innovative way to accomplish this goal by creating one of the most extensive volunteer programs in the country known as Volunteer Hollywood. Cultural diversity and the opportunity to work together through volunteerism are a natural match. Hollywood has created the forum to allow the community to work jointly to solve common concerns.

Citizens had been volunteering for years at different City departments and community centers. However, there had never been an attempt to organize and coordinate volunteer activities from a centralized location. Mayor Mara Giulianti felt volunteering helps bring out the best in people and, by consolidating the City's efforts, it would get more community members involved and in the process make Hollywood a better place to live and work.

To that end, Volunteer Hollywood was created through resolution, placed under the Office of Community and Public Relations, and a Volunteer Coordinator was hired. With all the necessary resources and support in place, the development of an action plan, an organized volunteer awareness campaign, as well as the energy and enthusiasm of the newly hired Volunteer Coordinator, the project became an instant success.

Volunteer Hollywood now tracks the hours donated by volunteers, works in conjunction with homeowners and community based organizations in the development and execution of volunteer projects, provides area high school students with volunteer opportunities so they can meet their community service hours required for graduation, assists the courts with volunteer placements for citizens requiring mandatory community service hours, and works with City departments and offices in the development of internships.

A total of 87,820 volunteer hours have been logged in the last three years. These hours represent over $1,571,079.70 in savings to the City of Hollywood.
 

“Born To Read” Puts Children on the Path to Success

The Born to Read Program breaks the cycle of illiteracy and the lack of home-based educational support from the pre-natal stages through youth in low income families. By encouraging parents to read to their children from the very earliest time of their lives, the level of literacy so often lacking in low income households is raised and the human capital of our young people is enhanced. To accomplish this goal, a full-time librarian works at the Memorial Primary Care Clinic interacting with each family with young children. Each family is given a library application, a resource guide and the child's first book. New parents are instructed how to improve their child's intellectual abilities through reading. The instruction is reinforced with every health care visit the family makes to the clinic.

The Born to Read Program is a collaboration of the City of Hollywood, the Broward County Library System, Memorial Regional Hospital, the Broward County Health Department, the Hollywood Rotary Club, Barnes and Noble bookstores, the Hollywood Women's Club, the Broward County Library Foundation, and numerous volunteers. Each plays an important role in the program. For example, the City of Hollywood provided start-up capital and continues to provide funding for the program. The Children's Services Council pays for the professional librarian to staff the program. Memorial Hospital and the Broward County Health Department provide the space and serve as the source of clients for the program. The Hollywood Rotary Club, Barnes and Noble bookstores and the Hollywood Women's Club contribute financial assistance to purchase books and other necessary program materials. The Broward County Library Foundation, with the visionary encouragement and support of City of Hollywood Commissioner Beam Furr, led the effort to create the Born to Read program.

The program has been operating since 2003 and it draws upon volunteer and financial resources contributed from across the community. The program is now being considered for replication by other cities in the area.
 

Creating Affordable Housing and Improving Neighborhoods

Hollywood Housing and Neighborhood Development Strategy (Hollywood HANDS) is a multi-faceted community based approach to address affordable housing issues and neighborhood development concerns. Through the involvement of the City's Department of Housing and Community Redevelopment working alongside neighborhood associations, non-profit agencies, local businesses and state and federal agencies, tremendous improvements have been made in the quality of life and appearance of some of Hollywood's most distressed neighborhoods.

In the past three years, more than 70 new single family affordable homes have been built through public/private partnerships, several dozen older homes have been rehabilitated, and more than $10 million in public funds has been invested into the City's most distressed areas.

A project to replace deteriorated public housing with 190 new rental apartments is nearing completion. The new Crystal Lakes Apartments were built through a partnership between the Broward County Housing Authority, the City, Florida Housing Finance and private investors.




Request a framed All-America City insignia to display in your business by emailing
all-americacity@hollywoodfl.org