I hope our newsletter finds you well.  This week was great for learning and sharing about all things civic engagement.  I had an amazing time working with my cohorts from other cities nationwide at the Aspen Institute Maryland location from Sunday to Wednesday.  We encounter the same barriers to inclusive innovations in cities, and it’s been incredible to have the opportunity to support one another in finding our way to successes.  While I was away, the second Neighborhood Council Civic University 1.0 course concluded on Tuesday night with Councilmember David Ryu sharing his strategies at City Hall with our 150 graduates. HUGE thanks to Mayor Eric Garcetti and his awesome team , Councilmember Ryu, our BFF Raphe Sonenshein and the wonderful Pat Brown Institute/Cal State Los Angeles team, our incredible EmpowerLA staff, particularly Mike Fong and Tom Soong, and our fantastic Neighborhood Council board members for making NC Civic U 1.0 happen!!

As soon as I hopped off the plane on Wednesday afternoon, I headed down to the Harbor Alliance of Neighborhood Councils’ monthly meeting to join City Clerk Holly Wolcott to discuss Neighborhood Council  elections and funding.  If you haven’t already submitted your Community Impact Statement about on online voting report back for Council File 15-1022-S2, please do so as soon as possible to be part of this important conversation.  Holly and I will be going to all of the regional alliance meetings in February so please stop by and chat with us if you have questions or concerns.

I’m delighted to share that another three of our staffers graduated from the PerformLA Master Class this week on process improvement and innovation.  As you know, the Mayor’s Office brought this training from the Denver Peak Academy and made it our own.  Neighborhood Empowerment Advocates Melvin Canas and Octaviano Rios as well as Neighborhood Council funding staffer, Mario Hernandez,invested in the 5 day class this week, which I so appreciate.  Many thanks to them for their work and to the Mayor’s Office and Personnel Department (shout out to Raelynn Napper and Ashley Stracke!) for making this important training available to staff.

I don’t have the space to touch on all the super work staff is doing around the City the past week from the Purposeful Aging Town Hall (more info below!) to the Mission Hills Neighborhood Council selection (go Kathleen Quinn and VANC Resource Board! More info below!) to the Neighborhood Council Emergency Preparedness Alliance work (go Tom Soong!) to Westlake North Neighborhood Council seating 7 new women board members (go Stephen Box!) to everything else our staff do to Empower LA with our awesome Neighborhood Councils.  Thank you so much!

If I don’t see you at the LANCC tomorrow, have a great weekend!