Celebrating Solutions! - a first for PBS and United Way of America - is a live multi-site television event with celebrity presenters, upbeat entertainment, interactive web programming, and compelling video vignettes emphasizing exciting solutions to neighborhood problems across the nation. The focal point of Celebrating Solutions! is a neighbor-to-neighbor exchange of real solutions. With the theme, "Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods," the broadcast will showcase communities working together to identify, solve and sustain meaningful approaches to community problems. The on-going aspect of the project is embodied in its website, a resource-rich growing database in which neighbors can both search for and post successful solutions, like "Create a Park" in the midst of Silicon Valley's concrete jungle.

Vandalism, litter, and a general lack of security used to characterize the area surrounding downtown San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley. Since 1996, neighbors began meeting as the University Neighborhood Coalition (UNC) to take actions aimed at revitalizing their multi-ethnic, economically diverse community which borders the campus of San Jose State University. Through volunteer days and grassroots fundraising, the UNC is transforming the formerly vandalized neighborhood into a flourishing community where residents can feel safe and proud to live.

Ellison Horne, creator of Celebrating Solutions!, has captured the spirit of community involvement as witnessed by the outpouring of support for the victims of the September 11th tragedy. This grassroots initiative, funded by lead sponsors The San Francisco Foundation and United Way of the Bay Area, will inspire viewers to see how they can make a difference. Celebrating Solutions! has garnered the support of national organizations such as United Way of America, The National Civic League, Participate America and the Benton Foundation, to become a nationwide project in support of communities communicating with each other to share ideas, actions and outcomes that sustain safer and healthier communities .

KCTS/Seattle Public Television will serve as the presenting station working with the Celebrating Solutions! team to air this exciting live multi-media event scheduled for national broadcast in September 2003. In addition to PBS, United Way of America has signed on as an underwriting sponsor of the project. United Ways across the nation will work with PBS affiliates and others to promote civic engagement in their own communities and in the process, build social capital. This process will help communities form and strengthen strategic long-term alliances among local United Way agencies, community foundations and non-profit service organizations.

Celebrating Solutions! leverages the power of non-profit groups, interactive web programming, television and radio to engage audiences. There are 350 PBS stations throughout the country that provide thoughtful programming and a strong local connection to the communities they serve. The United Way movement includes approximately 1,400 independent, community-based United Way organizations that bring together diverse groups who are interested in building stronger communities.

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