Youth Town Hall
Clark County, Wash.
In April 2000, the Board of Clark County Commissioners hosted their first Youth Town Hall in honor of National County Government Week. More than 60 high school students were invited to share their comments and questions with Commissioners Craig Pridemore, Betty Sue Morris and Judie Stanton.

The idea came about after a review of national surveys that people expressed a sense of disengagement from government and civic organizations. Most often, the adolescent/teenage years are when young people begin to develop skeptical attitudes about established institutions.
The town hall was seen as an opportunity to get students out in the field, role-playing with county staff, seeing county issues first hand and getting a handle on the complexities and trade-offs involved with community decision making.

The town hall event included a welcoming reception, bus tours around the county, a luncheon with the commissioners and other elected officials and the town hall meeting itself. A well-known anchorman for a local television station donated his time to serve as town hall moderator.
The bus tours were designed to give students a basic understanding about some of the environmental and structural issues facing the county. The tours focused on urban growth areas, transportation planning, saving trees within public rights-of-way and flood control.

The Youth Town Hall was funded by the Clark County Department of Community Services and was subsidized by Regal Cinemas ($350 in movie tickets for students who completed evaluation forms) and Washington State University ($390 for use of the lecture hall and two classrooms).

Ninety-six percent of student attendees rated the overall town hall as either good or great; 96 percent said the tours were above average; 98 percent said they felt that youth voices were listened to and treated with respect; and 96 percent believe they are more likely to get involved in the future.

Fire Rescue Public Information Program
Broward County, Fla.
Broward County Fire Rescue (B.C.F.R.) developed a multifaceted public information program to enhance communications with key constituents. B.C.F.R. services six communities, an international airport, seaport and all unincorporated areas serving a resident population of nearly 180,000 persons.

A full-time public information officer administers the B.C.F.R. public information program. The program began with humble initiatives yet with the far-reaching goal of broadly disseminating prevention strategies via multiple media.

B.C.F.R. began by establishing a system of media notification. By contacting the media via pager, B.C.F.R. is able to rapidly disseminate incident information and briefings. This fast and accessible notification system helps B.C.F.R. maintain a close working relatioship with the media.

A color brochure was created to explain the role of Broward County Fire Rescue.

The public information program also redesigned Broward County Fire Rescue’s Web site from a stagnant document to a vibrant resource-laden tool for key stakeholders of the organization.
The program also includes “B.C.F.R. Trading Cards”, a partnership with large national movie cinema chains, a quarterly newsletter distributed to thousands of constituents and video service announcements.

The program has produced significant measurable results, including increasing the departments Web site viewing from a low of 11,850 a quarter to 60,782 hits “per quarter.” The B.C.F.R./MUVICO cinema partnership yields some 624,000 persons annually who are viewing public information messages for thirty seconds prior to each movie.

(Hats off to ... was compiled by Christina Crayton, research assistant, and features 2001 NACo Achievement Award winners. For more information, call (202) 942-4285.)