The Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, in cooperation with the Governor's Office of Voluntary Action and the Department on Aging, is pleased to announce the Seventh Annual Governor's Home Town Awards Program. This program was designed to recognize voluntary citizen participation in community improvement and economic development efforts which took place during calendar year 1987.

The Home Town Awards Program can help a community by giving statewide recognition to those volunteers that have made their home town a better place in which to live, work, play and conduct business.

Any city or village, or other local government, community organization, community action agency, or group of citizens within Illinois is eligible to enter the competition.

The Department of Commerce and Community Affairs has Application Guidebooks available for use in submitting projects. (One Application Guidebook must be used for each entry.) Completed applications must be received by the department no later than April 15, 1988. Projects should reflect broad volunteer support and participation.

If a project was started prior to 1987, it may still be entered, although the judges will be examining only the portion accomplished in the immediate past calendar year.

Here are just a few examples of the many possible projects: commercial/industrial retention or attraction, job creation, development of a small business incubator, downtown improvements, parks and playgrounds, farmer's markets, sidewalk replacement, art workshops, adult literacy programs, nature centers, blood-banks and bloodmobiles, meals on wheels and many more.

The judging of the projects, which is done by a panel of impartial volunteer judges, will be based on four criteria: addressing an important community need, heavy commitment of volunteer resources, generating tangible results, and wide-spread community support.

Preliminary judging is done during the month of May with those communities surviving the "cut" scheduled for site visits later.

A project involving a number of communities is eligible for participation. Only one project application need be submitted for a joint project. There is no limit on the number of projects that a community may submit.

There are four project categories. Under the General Category, any project of any type which contributes to a community's overall improvement and quality of life may be submitted in this category.

In addition to the General Home Town Awards Category, there are three special award categories. The special categories are: Economic Development projects, Youth Involvement projects and a Senior Citizen category. The youth and senior citizen projects should be selected, planned and conducted solely by the community's youth and senior citizens. The Economic Development category should involve volunteers in helping to create or retain jobs in the private sector of the community. It might be the building of a small business incubator or volunteer efforts of retired corporate executives to help new and developing small businesses.

You are encouraged to enter your project for con-

February 1988 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 11

sideration in more than one of the above categories. For example, any of the "special" category projects may also be considered in the overall "general" category.

The Governor's Home Town Awards applications will be placed in population groups so that projects will compete against projects of similar size.

For each community population category, a recognition road sign and plaque will be presented to the first, second and third place winners noting their achievement in the Governor's Home Town Awards Program. Remaining winning projects will receive recognition certificates. Road signs and plaques will also be presented to the best project in each of the special categories.

The grand prize winner will be selected from the first prize winners of all categories and will receive the traveling silver Governor's Cup at the awards banquet which will be held in the month of June.

Last year's Governor's Cup winner was the city of Evanston. The Council of Elders (COE) in Evanston offers help to the youth of the community by providing counseling, activity centers, and neighborhood car and foot patrols to deter criminal activities that could involve youth. Through their work, the COE Pops and COE Moms promote respect for the law, help youth develop self-respect, provide recreation, education and economic opportunity, and promote racial harmony.

Previous years winners include: Royal, Decatur, Barry and Wilsonville.

For more information on the Governor's Home Town Awards Program or to request an Application Guidebook, contact Bob Glatz using the department's toll-free Local Government Hotline number, 1-800- 562-4688. •

Page 12 / Illinois Municipal Review / February 1988