Palm Springs Awarded National Neighborhood Conference

From the City of Palm Springs:The City of Palm Springs is pleased to announce it has been selected to host the Neighborhoods, USA, (NUSA), Annual Conference in May 2019. NUSA is a national non-profit organization created in 1975 committed to building and strengthening neighborhood organizations in order to share information, experiences, and best practices toward the goal of building stronger communities.

The winning proposal was presented last week in Omaha, Nebraska and prepared by a coalition of groups led by representatives from Organized Neighborhoods of Palm Springs, otherwise known as ONE-PS, a non-profit comprised of the City’s 43 organized neighborhoods, the Palm Springs City Manager and the City’s Office of Neighborhood Involvement, the Palm Springs Convention Center and Bureau of Tourism and the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau. Also at this meeting, The ONE-PS Guide to Palm Springs Neighborhoods, a local publication, earned First Place in its category in a nationwide competition of neighborhood-oriented publications.

2019 will mark the first time Palm Springs hosts a NUSA conference and it is expected to bring the City about 1,000 delegates representing several thousand neighborhoods nationwide.

NUSA delegates will participate in two days of interactive workshops, keynote speeches, informal discussions and as many as 20 Palm Springs neighborhood tours created to educate conference attendees about the formation, evolution, challenges and unique characteristics of the City’s many diverse neighborhoods.

In addition, programs will focus on building community, fostering inclusion, creating safer neighborhoods, and engaging residents in civic activity. For Palm Springs, this will likely include such programs as Tahquitz Creek Yacht Club’s cleanup project, the City’s Neighborhood Policing Program, the Racquet Club neighborhood’s “Small Libraries” program, the ONE-PS Neighborhood Blade Sign Program and the annual ONE-PS Picnic & Community Expo.

“This will be a great opportunity to show off our city in a fresh and exciting way,” said ONEPS Executive Board member Eric Chiel. “It’s not just about our City’s fantastic architectural legacy. It’s also about how the distinctive spirit, culture and evolution of our neighborhoods, makes each one uniquely appealing.”

“The City of Palm Springs is honored to welcome the annual Neighborhoods, USA conference to Palm Springs in 2019,” said City Manager David H. Ready. “We hope these delegates come away with a renewed understanding and appreciation of how neighborhood organizations play an important role in the success of local government and how we can work together to communicate and engage with our residents.”

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