The Sixth Annual Governor's Home Town Awards Program By JAY HEDGES, Director Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs

During the last five years, the Governor's Home Town Awards program has experienced steadily increasing popularity and participation by local governments and community organizations throughout Illinois.

The Governor's Home Town Awards program formally recognizes community improvement and economic development accomplishments resulting from the effort and commitment of community volunteers. The program, now in its sixth year, is administered by the Department of Commerce and Community Affairs in cooperation with the Governor's Office of Voluntary Action and the Department on Aging.

Any city, village, other local government, community based organization or individual within Illinois is eligible to enter the competition. A letter of project endorsement from the chief local official, i.e. mayor or village president, should accompany the application.

There are four categories in which projects may be submitted for a Home Town Award. 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 addition to the General Category, there are special award categories. The special categories are: Economic Development projects, Youth Involvement projects and Senior Citizen Involvement projects. The Youth and Senior Citizen projects should be selected, planned and conducted solely by the community's youth and senior citizens. The Economic Development projects should involve volunteers in helping to create or retain jobs in the private sector of the community. Such a project might be the building of a small business incubator or volunteer efforts of retired executives or entrepreneurs to help new and developing small business.

There is no limit to the number of projects that a community may submit. A project involving a number of communities also is eligible for participation.

You are encouraged to enter your project for consideration in more than one category. 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 your project will compete against projects submitted by communities of similar size.

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

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

Preliminary judging is done during the month of May and those communities who are determined by the panel to warrant further consideration are scheduled for site visits one week later.

For each community population category, a recognition road sign and plaque will be presented to the first, second and third place winners in the general category — noting their achievement in the Governor's

February 1987 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 11

Home Town Awards Program. Remaining winning projects will receive recognition certificates. Road signs and plaques also will 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 Village of Royal. This community of 274 citizens raised $145,000 to furnish and construct a community building having an estimated value in excess of $300,000. With the exception of bricklaying, volunteers provided all other labor including the cleaning of reclaimed brick.

The 1985 Governor's Cup winner was the City of Decatur— with the "Decatur Advantage". A committee was established to develop strategic planning to improve the economic development climate and quality of life in Decatur. Hundreds of citizens were involved in carrying out the goals of the program. As a result of their efforts, 208 new jobs were created and $556,000 was raised in cash and pledges.

Previous years' Governor's Cup winners include:

Barry, whose residents formed a committee, purchased land and built a community swimming pool. Citizens of Barry and surrounding communities keep the pool busy all summer. Wilsonville citizens banded together to stop a company which was dumping hazardous wastes into a landfill which could contaminate the town's water supply.

The Department of Commerce and Community Affairs has Application Guidebooks available for use in submitting projects. (One application must be used for each entry.) Completed applications must be received by the Department no later than April 15,1987. Projects should reflect broad volunteer support and participation.

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 1987