Counties lend an ear to youths

Tomorrow's leaders will have a voice today – er, in August – during the NCACC's 103rd Annual Conference, which will be held Aug. 26-29 at the Greenville Convention Center and the Hilton Greenville in Pitt County.

The conference agenda will include "Youth Voice 2010," the Association's first youth summit. In partnership with N.C. Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development Services, selected high school juniors and seniors from each county will develop a youth agenda to present to the NCACC at the Aug. 28 Business Session.

Youth delegates will also join conference attendees at the Aug. 27 Horn O' Plenty event and will attend the Aug. 28 morning general session.

Youth Voice 2010 emphasizes the value of involving young leaders in community issues and engaging young people in public service at the county level. Developing youth leadership is the presidential initiative of Cleveland County Commissioner Mary Accor, who will wrap up her term as NCACC president at the conference.

One of three Annual Conference workshop tracks will focus on youth development. Topics include youth civic engagement, alternatives to school suspension, adolescent hunger, health and obesity, and creating teen spaces and recreation programs.

Other workshop track themes are leadership and strategic financing.

The leadership track includes workshops on successful early college high school programs, using benchmarks as strategic tools, broadband access and Internet gaps, and plugging the brain drain through economic transformations.

The strategic financing track includes hands-on instruction in using the Local Government Finance Dashboard, a workshop on developing successful tax referenda campaigns sponsored by the NCACC Tax & Finance Steering Committee, and a seminar on how not to be "penny wise and pound foolish" with risk management.

For full conference information or to print out a registration form, visit www.ncacc.org/annualconf.htm.