Sign Up Today For the FREE Neighborhood Council Congress Being Held Saturday April 21st!

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils Congress is holding three hand-on seminars at the Bonaventure Hotel - and they are all free, parking is free and lunch is free.

April 21 Congress: 3 Reasons to Attend
Preview: LANCC WILL HOST SPECIAL, UNIQUE FORUMS

By Brady Westwater

If you want to develop jobs and businesses in your community, increase community outreach or need more parks and green spaces in your community - the Los Angeles Neighborhood Congress (LANCC) has multiple experts with multiple solutions … as well as Neighborhood Council members to tell you their success stories.

You will each be given specific action items to take back to your communities Monday morning to get to work to solve these problems. So register today to take advantage of these free programs at the Bonaventure hotel where both the parking and the lunch are also totally free at www.lacityneighborhoods.com

1 - From 9:30– 10:45 am, Bob Reid of the Trust for Public Land will explain how Neighborhood Councils can develop political support for parks, use “greenprint” maps to make a case for additional park space in their communities and learn the basics of land acquisition and how to use that information to acquire more park land.

Also on the panel with be a representative from the LAUSD with info on working with the school district to use school facilities after hours; someone from Parks and Rec to discuss the parks assessment survey and several community based organizations that have successfully created parks and green spaces throughout Los Angeles … including BONC commissioner, Tsilah Burman, Executive Director of the L.A. Neighborhood Land Trust.

For more information on this event and a complete list of guest speakers on this topic, visit www.parksforla.blogspot.com .

2 -From 11 to 12:15 pm: Real world examples of how NC's can – and have – brought economic development to local communities. Experts will explain how to get financial incentives for local businesses and how to access job training and jobs for youth programs in your neighborhoods

Downtown Los Angeles, as one example, will detail exactly how it turned the worst drug dealing neighborhood in the city - Fifth and Main - into Gallery Row, a neighborhood now filled with ethnic restaurants, clothing boutiques and book stores as well as art galleries. Hear how four DLANC board members brought Fashion Week back to Los Angeles from Culver City in just six weeks. Other NC’s will describe how to create both cultural tourism and locally based events that have brought economic and cultural benefits to their neighborhoods.

For more information on this event and a complete list of guest speakers, visit: www.lameansbusiness.blogspot.com .

3 -At 1:30 p.m-- Everyone talks about outreach, but nobody seems to know what to do about it. Well, here’s the place for the latest ideas in promoting what your NC is doing in your community.

The featured speaker will be Rob Barrett who is head of all things web and interactive at the Los Angeles Times. He is also in charge of making the LA Time website the place to go for hyper-local coverage of the communities of Los Angeles.

And while he has a lot to say on how we can use the Times to promote the NC movement, just as importantly he – and the LA Times – want to hear from us about how we feel how latimes.com can do a better job covering LA’s neighborhoods.

Hear how Neighborhood Councils can get computers placed in underserved parts of their community to allow everyone on-line access; how NC’s can help better connect their communities by providing access to literacy and English-as-a-second-language classes and programs that better allow everyone in our city to participate in civic affairs; and, how anyone can create a website in five minutes or less.

All of these must-experience interactive forums are hosted by the LANCC. Look for the LA Neighborhood Councils Congress on the April 21 Congress of Neighborhoods program.

More info at: www.LANCCOutreach.blogspot.com .