City recognized as one of the 100 best communities for kids to live by America’s Promise Alliance
By Stephanie Weaver, Correspondent, CoatesvilleTimes.com
COATESVILLE —The city of Coatesville has been recognized as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by America’s Promise Alliance.
The organization, founded by General Colin Powell in 1997, honors 100 communities each year that are working to improve the quality of life for their youth despite numerous hurdles.
John Hall, a member of the Coatesville Youth Initiative, submitted a proposal to the America’s Promise Alliance after he noticed all the effort the community was doing to help support children and teens. He was one of more than 300 applicants.
“I thought the people within the community deserved a little recognition for helping Coatesville’s youth,” said Hall.
Along with the recognition, Coatesville was awarded a $2,500 grant for a local event to celebrate the city’s youth. America’s Promise Alliance will also give the city road signs, a commemorative trophy, and access to an online grant search service for one year.
“We are using the grant money to put on a proposed performing arts workshop,” stated Hall. “It will be a lead in to the Battle of the Bands held at the Strawberry Festival to help students compete.”
In a statement released by the Coatesville Community Education Foundation, Richard Como, Coatesville Area School District Superintendent, said, “We are proud to be a partner in the America’s Promise 100 Best Communities for Young People award recognizing the school district’s commitment to ensuring that all students – regardless of background or income levels – have opportunities to learn, achieve, and become active members of the community in which they live.”
“It helps the community to see how good people feel about this award because they know how much people do to help young people,” said Hall. “Coatesville usually gets negative attention and this is one time we got the positive attention that we’ve deserved all along.”
