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Economic & Community Development
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The Louisiana Lafayette Housing Authority, the Secretary of Elder Affairs, and other government officials have endorsed a new mobile fitness center catering to the region's elderly. Big Poppa's fitness center has built a gym in a trailer that will travel to different housing developments to provide exercise facilities and advice to senior citizens. So far, more than 300 elderly people in six public housing developments plan to participate each time the gym comes to their neighborhood. State grants ensure that senior citizens will be able to use the gym at no charge. Secretary of Elder Affairs Godfrey White notes "my office researched it and found not only does nothing like this exist in Louisiana, it doesn't exist in America... we support the private sector bringing services to the elderly. It's right in conjunction with the governor's programs. It's a Louisiana first."
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The Department of Education in collaboration with several federal officials has launched www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation, a master list of accredited higher educational institutions and vocational training schools, "to combat the growing industry of diploma mills." The website is meant to help students and employers verify the accreditation of educational institutions and alleviate the issuance of fraudulent degrees.
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To reduce the high homelessness rate in the South Bronx, the Civil Court of the City of New York, the United Way of New York City, Legal Services for New York City-Bronx, and Women In Need have partnered to create a comprehensive court-based homelessness prevention program. Specially trained judges and counsel will now handle housing and eviction cases through the Housing Help Program, while co-located support services will address the background reasons for homelessness. Placing these services under one roof mitigates the disconnect between important agencies charged with protecting the rights of the homeless. City officials believe that the program will go far in helping to reduce the 5000 South Bronx individuals, half of which are children, sleeping in city shelters each night.
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In an effort to thwart identity theft, the federal government has granted funding to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) to test new document-scan technology and study newly developed facial recognition software. These technologies will help the RMV identify counterfeit documents, such as driver's licenses and foreign passports that can be used to obtain multiple forms of identification for credit fraud or criminal purposes. The equipment is already being used in select RMV locations across the state to confirm the authenticity of documents presented by first time applicants for driver's licenses.
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2005 City and County Innovations Summit and Performance Management Awards
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Hosted by the Performance Institute, in association with the Ash Institute, the 2005 City and County Innovations Summit is the most comprehensive performance management event of the year for city and county managers. This year's Summit will be hosted in Phoenix on March 21-23, 2005.
Additionally, the Performance Institute will recognize innovative management practices in city and county government through a series of awards. The City and County Performance Management Awards will recognize excellence in budgeting, public-private partnerships and organizational performance management. Click here for applications and additional information about the Summit and the City and County Performance Management Awards.
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