The Insider -- Volume 1 No. 6 (a DCGov e-Newsletter)

District of Columbia sent this bulletin at 12/09/2011 03:27 PM EST

Volume 1 No. 6 December 9, 2011

DISTRICT TO BECOME AMERICA’S FIRST 100-GIGABIT CITY

On Wednesday, December 7, 2011, Mayor Vincent C. Gray and officials from the District’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) announced that the first link in D.C. government’s new high-speed fiber network, the D.C. Community Access Network (DC-CAN), has gone live with 100-gigabit-per-second (100G) service – enabling the kind of technology-infrastructure development vital to competing in a 21st-century economy.

The initial link serves communities east of the Anacostia River, but the ultra-high-speed network will soon serve the entire District – providing infrastructure not currently available on such a large scale anywhere else in the country, and doing so at affordable prices.

“With this 100G connection, we are making history by providing state-of-the-art network capacity that will help create jobs and grow the District’s economy well into the 21st century,” said Mayor Gray. “DC-CAN will help pave the way for greater broadband adoption across the District of Columbia, and I’m proud that we will be the first city in the United States to make such a forward-thinking investment in crucial technology infrastructure.”

This milestone makes the District the first city in the nation to build a network that is 10 times faster than typical service-provider networks today. The ultra-high-speed link allows “last-mile” service providers (who provide Internet access to end users) to take immediate advantage of low-cost services via DC-CAN – thus enabling them to bring affordable broadband services to residents and businesses in underserved areas of the city.

As the first city-owned 100G network in the nation, DC-CAN positions the District to deliver cost-effective “middle-mile” services at an ultra-high capacity to government entities and private-sector Internet Service Providers (ISPs) well into the future. The network’s capacity surpasses that of other municipal networks in the country, including those in California’s Silicon Valley and other major tech hubs.

Funded through a National Telecommunications and Information Administration infrastructure grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, DC-CAN brings middle-mile broadband services to areas of the city with adoption rates of less than 40 percent.

The 100G backbone links are expected to be complete in Wards 5, 7 and 8 within the next six months, and will extend to every ward in the District by June of 2013. Currently, there are 24 community anchor institutions whose DC-CAN connectivity is operational. By the end of the project in 2013, there will be 223 such institutions with connectivity to the ultra-high-speed network.

COMMUNITY SPOTLIGHT

Mayor Gray poses with singers from the Capital Kids, who performed at the official tree lighting and holiday celebration at John A. Wilson Building on December 5th.

Thousands of senior citizens join Mayor Gray December 8th at the D.C. Armory for the Office on Aging’s 14th Annual Mayor’s Senior Holiday Celebration.

BRENDA DONALD APPOINTED TO HEAD CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES AGENCY

On December 8, Mayor Vincent C. Gray named Brenda Donald as his pick to lead the District’s Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA).

“Brenda Donald has vast experience in family services both inside and outside the District government,” said Mayor Gray. “The Child and Family Services Agency serves the District’s most vulnerable populations. Ms. Donald’s senior-management experience in the public and non-profit sectors and her focus on improving outcomes for children and their families are crucial for CFSA in the current economic environment.”

She most recently served as Vice President, Center for Effective Family Services and Systems for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In this role, Donald led the foundation’s work of improving outcomes for children living in the country’s most difficult situations.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Donald served as Maryland’s Secretary of the Department of Human Resources. There, she was responsible for designing and implementing major systems reform. She previously served the D.C. government as Deputy Mayor for Children, Youth, Families, and Elders and as the director of CFSA. She was selected in 1995 as one of the first fellows in the Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Family Fellowship program. Read more.

MAYOR GRAY AND SERVE DC ANNOUNCE RECIPIENTS OF 2011 MAYOR’S ONE CITY COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARDS

The Mayor’s Office on Volunteerism recently announced the recipients of the 2011 Mayor’s One City Community Service Awards. The awards are intended to recognize, reward and encourage activities that have a significant impact on meeting community needs in the District of Columbia.

The annual award is open to District residents who have clearly demonstrated an outstanding commitment to service and volunteerism. The 2011 award categories included: Community Service, National Service, Emergency Preparedness and Public Safety, Education, Youth, and HIV/AIDS Advocacy.

Award recipients were honored Thursday, December 1, at a small ceremony featuring remarks by Mayor Gray. The event was hosted by Danny Harris of the People’s District, a blog dedicated to telling the stories of District residents, and presenters included Kenneth Ellerbe, DC Fire & Emergency Medical Services (FEMS) Chief; Stephen Glaude, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs; John Gomperts, AmeriCorps State and National Director; Cedric Jennings, Director of the D.C. Youth Advisory Council; and Christopher Murphy, Executive Office of the Mayor Chief of Staff.

The 2011 Mayor’s One City Community Service Award recipients are:

Community Service Award: Jeannette Mobley

National Service Award: Evan Waldt

Education Service Award: Michelle Smith

Youth Volunteer Service Award: Yalemwork Teferra

Emergency Preparedness & Public Safety Award: Judith Sutter

HIV/AIDS Advocacy: Ron Swanda

For more information on each One City Community Service Award recipient, please click here.

Mayor On The Move

On December 4th, Mayor Gray participated in a ceremony honoring men, women and families of the D.C. National Guard.

MAYOR VINCENT C. GRAY MARKS WORLD AIDS DAY 2011 WITH SERVICE, PROCLAMATION, VIGIL AND EXPANSION OF ‘ASK FOR THE TEST’ CAMPAIGN

The District recognized World AIDS Day with a number of events and observations – including the expansion of the city’s “Ask for the Test” campaign, intended to increase HIV/AIDS awareness and testing among District residents.

Mayor Gray observed the day by volunteering his time at Food & Friends, a District community-service organization that provides meals and groceries to people living with AIDS; attending a candlelight vigil in Dupont Circle, hosted by the AIDS service organization Whitman-Walker Health; and issuing a proclamation declaring December 1, “World AIDS Day 2011” in the District.

“The District has an unacceptably high rate of HIV infection, and my administration is making a priority of expanding our fight against HIV and AIDS,” Mayor Gray said.

The “Ask for the Test” expansion involves a partnership between the D.C. Department of Health (DOH) and two local Radio One properties, WKYS 93.9-FM and WMMJ 102.3-FM. The initiative is intended to create HIV/AIDS awareness and aims to test over 1,200 District residents.

News of the collaboration between the city and the two stations arrives just as the District has released new data showing a steady increase in HIV/AIDS tests over the past several years as a result of previous “Ask for the Test” initiatives. The District has successfully offered 122,356 publicly supported HIV tests from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011 -- an increase from 110,000 tests in 2011 and triple the 43,000 tests the city supported in 2007.

The “Ask for the Test Campaign” will wrap up at the end of December with a concert at the 9:30 Club that will feature Raheem Devaughn, Chuck Brown and other celebrities.

For more information on testing locations and concert-ticket eligibility, visit www.DCTakesOnHIV.com.

THE DISTRICT AND REGIONAL OFFICIALS PREPARE FOR SEVERE WINTER WEATHER EVENTS

In preparation for the winter season, Mayor Gray and agency officials participated in a Severe Winter Weather Tabletop Exercise (TTX) December 1st. The goal of the exercise was to engage agency officials, D.C. Council staff, business leaders, community stakeholders and regional and federal partners in the practice and discussion of severe-winter-weather scenarios involving agency preparedness, planning, response and recovery for both large and small events. Mayor Gray is committed to ensuring public safety and continuity of government operations under the most extreme conditions. Agencies in attendance included:

• Council of the District of Columbia and their Chiefs of Staff;

• Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs);

• D.C. Agencies and Departments;

• Executive Directors of the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs);

• Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA);

• Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments;

• American Red Cross - National Capital Area;

• United Planning Organization (UPO);

• D.C. National Guard;

• U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS),

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA);

• FEMA’s Office of National Capital Region Coordination (ONCRC);

• Destination DC;

• District of Columbia Hospital Association (DCHA);

• Hotel Association of DC; and

• Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

For more information on the Severe Winter Weather TTX, please go to http://hsema.dc.gov.

D.C. PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD ANNOUNCEs LIST OF HIGH PERFORMING CHARTER SCHOOLS

In keeping with the Mayor’s pledge for quality education in the District of Columbia, the D.C. Public Charter School Board recently announced the names of high-performing charter schools across the city, along with the results of their new evaluation tool for assessing and monitoring charter-school performance, the Performance Management Framework (PMF). The Mayor recognized the high-performing public charter schools and acknowledged the work of educational leaders and community members dedicated to the assurance of quality education across the city. To view the list of high performing schools and the PMF results, go to http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/News-Room.aspx?ID=232.

Mayor Gray and Chairman Kwame R. Brown pose with organizers of the Capitol Showdonw December 7th after a press event in the John A. Wilson Building celebrating the return of big-time championship boxing to the District.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMITS TO BETTER BUILDINGS CHALLENGE

The District of Columbia recently signed the partner pledge to become a participant in the Better Buildings Challenge, a national energy-efficiency-leadership initiative proposed by President Barack Obama to make commercial buildings 20 percent more energy-efficient by 2020.

Through its partnership with the Better Buildings Challenge, the District of Columbia has committed to a multi-pronged action plan to reduce energy consumption by at least 20 percent by 2020 in over 90 million square feet of city- and privately-held buildings in the downtown core. The District is pursuing an aggressive energy-efficiency and renewable-energy agenda and is investing in long-term incentive programs that will support public-private collaboration and ensure that Washington is a national leader in energy efficiency.

Upcoming Events

MINER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRESENTS A DELIGHTFUL HOLIDAY PRODUCTION: “CORDUROY...THE LONELY BEAR"

Miner Elementary School, known for its outstanding performing-arts program (including a performance at the White House), will present a Holiday Production, "Corduroy...The Lonely Bear", December 13th - 15th. Show times are:

* Tuesday, December 13th: 6:00 p.m.

* Wednesday, December 14th: 1:00 p.m. matinee for students & seniors and 6:00 p.m.

* Thursday, December 15th: 6:00 p.m.

Under the creative direction of Dr. Carmen White (a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist), "Corduroy...Lonely Bear" is told with a twist and a special message -- that even toys can learn not to be bullies! Multi-talented students from Miner Elementary School, Savoy Elementary School, the D.C. Youth Ensemble, African Heritage Dancers & Drummers and the community comprise the energetic cast of this production. The collaboration of the schools (Miner & Savoy) and community-based arts organization (DC Youth Ensemble & African Heritage) clearly demonstrate the benefits of pooling talent and resources.

According to Principal LaVonne Taliaferro-Bunch, "I'm always seeking creative ways to involve my students, staff, faculty and parents in learning experiences that they can share and feel good about. That's what truly makes our school a community of learners.”

Everyone is invited to this fun filled family oriented holiday event at Miner Elementary School, located at 601 15th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002.

"Corduroy” is approximately 90 minutes long. Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $5.00 for children 12, and under and seniors 60 years and above. Student& senior matinee tickets are $5.00 for students and $10.00 for adults.

For additional information, call (202) 397-3960 or email Lavonne.Taliaferro-Bunch@dc.gov. All proceeds will go towards supporting the schools' arts programming.

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