Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
Newsletter

October 16, 2003

Re: Congress of Neighborhoods - Invitation and Pre-Registration

The public is invited to attend the Congress of Neighborhoods on Saturday, November 1st at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where Neighborhood Councils will meet with city departments and their general managers, be trained in critical skills, and have an opportunity to network with each other.

This event will feature the launch of the new Empowerment Academy, which will offer classes that are designed to build and refine the skills that are needed to create independent, influential, credible, and effective Neighborhood Councils.

The Academy will be an on-going series of classes designed to teach people how to organize and successfully run a Neighborhood Council. Similar to a college curriculum, the Academy will offer nine different training series with four to eight classes in each. The classes will be repeated throughout the year. The first of these classes will be offered at the November 1st Congress of Neighborhoods event.

Registration will be opened to the public on Friday, October 17th at 8:00 a.m. To register, or for more information go to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment's Web site at www.lacityneighborhoods.com, or call the department toll-free at (866) LA HELPS.

EDITOR'S NOTE: See also the LACP article:

Congress of Neighborhoods Information Kit
November 1, 2003 - at the Los Angeles Convention Center

You do not need to register to attend. Registration helps us ensure that we locate the classes in the properly-sized rooms. Last year, none of the classes reached capacity, so attendees were free to make last minute decisions about where to go.

On our home page, under the News Flash, section you will find the program of events and classes.

When you are ready to register you may do so by faxing a registration form to (213) 485-4608, calling our toll-free number, or, better yet, registering online by going to our home page and looking for the special Congress of Neighborhoods/Empowerment Academy icon on the left side of the page.

We expect that shortly after tomorrow we will use the News Flash section to post the changes to the program. Clicking on the icon will always provide you with all of the program information, but we can post changes more quickly and easily using the News Flash thing. It’s a technical thing. Trust us.

In order to give us time to prepare the event, registration will close on the evening of Sunday, October 26. After that, you can come and network with people, visit the 40 or so city departments, and take your chances on the classes.

When you look at the program, please note that:

* During the general networking/breakfast period from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. there will be rooms set aside for special interest groups to network.

* Although some class names appear to be the same as last time, many of the instructors will be new.

* The entire event has been condensed from an all-day event to a morning event, so there will be no lunch break. You should be finished by 1 p.m.

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Greg Nelson

866 / LA HELPS
213 / 485-1360
213 / 485-4608 fax
done@mailbox.lacity.org email
www.lacityneighborhoods.com website