The Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership, is celebrating its 10th year. Incorporated in 1997, it is a nonprofit, nonpartisan collaboration of The League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties and the California School Boards Association. The officers of the three associations make up the Board of Directors of the Partnership. The goal of the partnership is to create a culture of collaboration among local elected officials in California’s 478 cities, 58 counties, and more than 1000 school districts. The purpose of this collaboration is to improve the conditions for California’s children, families and communities.

Each year the Cities Counties and Schools Partnership presents the CCS Partnership Awards to recognize and honor communities that are:

• Working together on collaborative projects between, cities, counties, schools and community-based organizations.
• Utilizing cooperative services to enhance the quality of life for citizens in a community.
• Working collaboratively to establish healthy and vibrant communities and create a culture of cooperation.

In 2007 there are two City recipients of the “CCS Partnership Award”

The City of Santa Fe Springs is a recipient for the Student/Community Diversity Summit. The City of Santa Fe Springs takes leadership and responsibility for teaching tolerance and peace in order to achieve a safe and healthy social environment. The City has a philosophy of tolerance, respect for family diversity, inclusion and advocacy for children built through strategies where “collaboration is a cornerstone”. The Interagency Juvenile Task Force is a collaboration of the City of Santa Fe Springs, three school districts, the Chamber of Commerce, the local community college, and non-profit groups. Each year the city holds the Student/Community Diversity Summit to develop greater tolerance and sensitivity to cultural, age, ethnic, social and gender strengths. All day off-campus summits feature education presentations, interactive discussion and workshops followed by action plans for the community, the students and the schools. These plans are monitored for implementation and outcomes during the year and evaluated at future summits. Over 44,000 students 3,000 educators, city staff and members of the business community and 500 parents have participated in the summits.

In selecting Santa Fe Springs as a 2007 CCS Partnership Award winner the judges were impressed with the creativity the city showed in addressing a difficult and complex issue. The results of the summits are impressive; they include a decrease of juvenile crime and impressively the virtual ceasing of youth gang violence.

The City of Chino is a recipient for Healthy Chino. The City has responded to America’s health crisis by creating the Healthy Chino Coalition. The mission of the coalition is” to increase healthy lifestyles options and the quality of life for our community”. Healthy Chino is comprised of community leaders, schools, businesses, medical professionals, churches, service organizations and dedicated residents working together. The Chino City Council has supported this effort by passing a resolution establishing Chino as a healthy community and has dedicated funding in each of the last three fiscal years. The school district has also passed a similar resolution. The City is developing a Healthy Chino element in the City’s General Plan Update, has worked with a developer to develop safe walkable neighborhoods, and created a community garden and a related farmers market. The city has developed the Mental Health Guide for the Chino Valley. Healthy Chino incorporates strategies for nutritional education and access to healthy foods, and increasing physical activity.

In selecting the City of Chino as a 2007 CCS Partnership Award winner, the judges were impressed with the comprehensiveness of the approach, the scope of the effort and how much has been accomplished with limited resources. The City is to be commended for recognizing the correlation between public health and the environment and land use.

The CCS Partnership is pleased to recognize these two cities as outstanding examples of what can be accomplished through collaboration.