BATON ROUGE, LA — July 24, 2019 – East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome’s Cradle to K education initiative was recognized and honored recently with a 2019 City Livability Award for Outstanding Achievement during the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ 87th Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The City Livability Award recognizes mayoral leadership in developing and implementing programs that improve the quality of life in America’s cities, focusing on the leadership, creativity and innovation demonstrated by the mayors. This year’s winning cities were selected by former mayors from a pool of over 150 applicants.
"Our City Livability Awards Program gives us the chance to celebrate the extraordinary role mayors across the country play in making urban areas cleaner, safer and more livable,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “We are grateful to Waste Management for its many years of support for the City Livability Awards Program, and for the opportunity to showcase the innovation and commitment of mayors and city governments across the country.”
Mayor Broome's Cradle to K Program is an early-childhood initiative focused on strengthening the culture of parenting in Baton Rouge around three parenting pillars: Patience, Curiosity, & Conversation. The program, led by the Mayor's Office, is a community effort involving the active participation of over two dozen community partners. Cradle to K connects parents to information, resources, and opportunities.
Mayor-President Broome expressed her gratitude for the recognition of the initiative she started in 2017. “Children in Baton Rouge are bursting with potential, and research proves that when we are able to provide them and their families with the support they need early on, kids will thrive,” she said. “This City Livability Award further displays that when communities come together around a clear message of what supportive parenting looks like, we are best able to help parents as they seek to provide what’s best for their children.”
The Cradle to K initiative is made up of three primary strategies and also plays the role of a centralized communication hub of resources and opportunities for parents and children. Cradle to K also uses social media to amplify the voices of local parents and also to promote resources and opportunities. The Facebook page's engagement is by far the highest of any municipal program in the region. It's not unusual for posts about the parent clubs or pre-K enrollment events to be shared over 50 times.
This is the 40th year in which cities have competed for the award, which is sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and Waste Management, Inc., the nation’s largest environmental solutions provider.
Susan Moulton, Waste Management’s Senior Director of Public Sector solutions, presented the City Livability Awards during the annual luncheon in Honolulu. “For 30 years, Waste Management has had the distinct pleasure of sponsoring the City Livability Awards that recognize U.S. mayors who go above and beyond to keep their communities safe, healthy and thriving. Working alongside mayors who strengthen their communities and enhance the lives of their residents motivates us to deliver innovative, safe and sustainable recycling and waste services the right way, every day.”
In addition to the two top awards, Outstanding Achievement Awards were given to four cities with populations of 100,000 or more: Akron (OH), Arlington (TX), Baton Rouge and Mesa (AZ) and four cities with populations of less than 100,000 — Gulfport (MS), Lynn (MS), Plainfield (NJ), and West Sacramento.
Program descriptions for the Outstanding Achievement and Honorable Mention award programs please go to: https://www.usmayors.org/city-livability/
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1,400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.