During the State of the City address on March 26, it was my privilege to recount the fact that just this past January, Dubuque received national media attention on Good Morning America when selected as one of the “100 Best Communities for Young People” in the nation!  In the nation!  That was a pretty remarkable achievement and a well-deserved accolade to Jane Steele and the Mississippi Valley Promise along with all our organizations and agencies with their many staff and volunteers who care about keeping America’s Promise to our youth … a promise that our young people will be given the opportunity to become educated, to learn how to make good life choices, to realize their goals and to contribute to society.  

Taking this effort to the next level is “Every Child, Every Promise,” a Dubuque County-wide community engagement and education process for citizens, supported by the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque and the Mississippi Valley Promise, and for which I have been invited to serve as a spokesperson.

The mission of “Every Child, Every Promise” is to improve the outcomes for our community’s youth by concentrating its focus on fulfillment of the Five Promises:  Caring Adults; Safe Places; Healthy Start; Effective Education; and Opportunities to Help Others.
A community-wide event for all interested citizens will kick-off on Wednesday, May 23, at 7:30 a.m. at the Dubuque Greyhound Park & Casino, and will explain how citizens can become involved and work together to focus on the needs of the children in our community, and how we can promise to deliver the things they need to grow up healthy, safe, and ready to thrive in Dubuque!  

During the summer months community conversations will be held, with a fall community-wide summit where data from the community conversations will be shared.  A strategic plan will then be created to identify priorities, with implementation over the next three years.  

Similar to the Envision 2010 process where over 3,000 citizen ideas were distilled into the top ten priority projects for community focus, “Every Child, Every Promise” will bring citizens together to build stronger youth programs for all youth in Dubuque County.  A Community Growth Chart will show us where we are, and where we need to be by 2010.  

Did you know that Dubuque County shows a 15-percent greater incidence of total juvenile arrests and juvenile violent crime than average; that youth in our county report spending six or more hours per day without adult supervision; and that 8 percent of our local 6th graders do not believe the adults in our community care about them or would help them when they needed it?

Children are the resources of our community and its future!  Children are our responsibility, and they are the workforce and citizens of tomorrow!  We cannot sit back and stop working for ways to make our community an even better place for our children.  

Join me on May 23 to learn how we can collaborate to raise community awareness about the importance of the Five Promises for our children!  Promise?!