The National League of Cities, NLC, which represents 19,000 cities, towns and villages, and more than 218 million Americans, will award 8 cities, including Long Beach, their award for Municipal Excellence at the 2009 Congress of Cities & Exposition in San Antonio, Texas. The awards will be given at an awards ceremony and luncheon tomorrow in San Antonio.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of this prestigious award. As a Gold winner in the 150,001-500,000 population category, Long Beach is being honored for its Creating a Youth-Driven Career Center program. The Creating a Youth-Driven Career Center program is a reinvention of the Long Beach workforce development agency’s youth service strategies, which focuses on providing opportunities to engage youth in the design and creation of physical spaces, outreach messages, collateral materials, actual products, key policy-making and critical community connections.

"The City of Long Beach is very proud to receive this award from the National League of Cities in recognition of our efforts and commitment to our youth,” said Bob Foster, Mayor, Long Beach. “With 40 percent of our population under the age of 25, the Youth Opportunity Center plays an important role in the city."

We visited the web site, and found it easy to use and with plenty to offer. We did a sample job search for any jobs with in 5 miles of West Orange County, zip code 90720, and quickly retrieved a listing of over 500 jobs. The site has useful things for both job seekers and employers. Click here to go to the site.

As a Gold winner, Long Beach will receive an award of $2,000, which will be donated to the community non-profit organization of its choice. Other award-winning cities include Slidell, La.; Savannah, Ga.; New York City; Estes Park, Colo.; Burnsville, Minn.; St. Louis, Mo. and Seattle, Wash.

“I congratulate Long Beach and its Creating a Youth-Driven Career Center program for receiving this award,” said Donald J. Borut, NLC executive director. “Long Beach’s program has improved the quality of life for its citizens by developing a creative solution to a pressing local problem. It is a model program that can serve as a positive example for other cities.”

The Awards for Municipal Excellence recognize city programs that improve the quality of life in local communities through creative collaboration, excellence in city governance, and best practices in municipal policy.