Bloomberg, Daley announce city volunteerism grants

There's a new effort to increase volunteerism in cities nationwide.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley joined Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin on Monday to announce grants of $200,000 apiece to 10 cities.

They say the money can be used to hire senior officials dedicated to developing plans to increase volunteerism under the new Cities of Service Coalition.

"We see this as an urban innovation," Rodin said in a statement. "It really brings the mayors and the city leadership together with the volunteers in a much more organized way that, we think, has the opportunity for much greater leverage and much greater impact."

The coalition was founded in September as an outgrowth of a New York City program Bloomberg started last April in response to President Barack Obama's call for increased civic service. The coalition began with the mayors of 17 cities participating, but had grown by Monday to include 80 mayors and city managers representing communities nationwide with a combined population of more than 38 million.

Cities receiving the grants are: Chicago; Detroit; Los Angeles; Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.; Newark, N.J.; Omaha, Neb.; Philadelphia; Sacramento, Calif.; Savannah, Ga.; and Seattle.

The announcement was made on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a national day of service, at the John Foster Dulles School of Excellence in Chicago, where more than 100 high school students spent the day painting hallways and murals and reorganizing classrooms.

Bloomberg said in a statement that helping cities "mobilize their citizens in innovative ways to solve our common problems" was the best way to celebrate King's life and work. Daley lauded the effort "to bring new energy and new ideas to the service movement."

"Volunteerism sends a powerful message people helping people to make our cities better places to live, work and raise a family and that's the message Cities of Service carries around the nation," said Daley.

The money for the initial round of grants came from the Rockefeller Foundation, and 50 cities competed for them. Due to the heavy response, Rodin and the mayors announced that there will be a second competition in the coming months to award similar grants to an additional 10 cities.

Funding for those grants will come from the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies.