As a city with a population of more than 90,000, new residents to the City of Beaverton are amazed by the number of sister cities partnerships the Beaverton Sister Cities Program has maintained over its 26 year history: six! Our first partnership was formed with Gotemba, Japan; the latest with Cluses, France; and plans for expansion into Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and China are being considered. With a mission to encourage cross-cultural understanding through promoting educational and economic exchange between the City of Beaverton and her sister cities around the world, our program is poised to celebrate the next 26 years and beyond.
Since becoming Mayor in 2008, and with substantial input from the Beaverton community, we have adopted a 10-point plan for achieving city goals which include economic development, cultural inclusion and sustainability. As a result of paying greater attention to our environment, the City of Beaverton has been honored with several environmental awards, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Communities and Mayor’s Climate Protection Award. What better way to celebrate these accomplishments than by sharing them with our six sister cities, students and dignitaries alike?
In 2011, the city hosted an International Sustainability Leadership Project inviting a total of 25 students from each of our six sister cities to collaborate with 25 local students to study and review findings on ways to work together to sustain our planet. The project concluded with a presentation to the visiting Mayors, as well as Beaverton business and community leaders. In 2013, our sister city Cheonan, South Korea hosted a Quality of Life seminar, inviting three young adults from Beaverton to study with students from China, France, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe, as well as Korea. The program followed a format similar to the ISL Project where students collaborated on a variety of environmental topics and reported findings to their respective Mayors. The positive response from business and civic leaders suggests this type of programming will be repeated.
Economic development is an important component of the city’s 10-point plan. Exchanges with our six sister cities often include visits to local businesses that otherwise might not happen. In 2010, one such exchange helped to open the door for a Beaverton business. This amazing opportunity benefitted the local business, which in turn has benefitted the city. We may not celebrate this level of success with every international exchange, but I am happy to report each visit improves the chances for future economic partnerships by keeping the lines of communication open.
With 25 percent of the city’s population born outside the U.S., the City of Beaverton has earned the reputation of being a very friendly, welcoming community. As a matter of fact, more than 100 languages are spoken in households throughout the city! With such a diverse population, cross-cultural understanding happens on the local level as well. The truly diverse Sister Cities Advisory Board is lucky to have sitting and recent members representing Armenia, China, Kenya, Korea, and Singapore. As the Sister Cities Program continues to maintain and develop partnerships on the global stage, so, too, will they have a partner organization beginning in 2014 to broaden local outreach in the community with the newly created Diversity Advisory Board.
When a member of the community asks why this program is important, as the Mayor of a member city of Sister Cities International, and a sister city to six treasured cities around the globe, I tell them the greatest reward is to hear a young adult returning from an international exchange say the experience was “life-changing” as they talk about forming and nurturing lifelong friendships. These future leaders continue the legacy of shrinking our global community by crafting bridges to cultural respect and understanding, as well as appreciating the necessity of protecting our environment—goals extremely important to the City of Beaverton and our community, both local and global.
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Beaverton, Oregon: Partnering for Environmental Innovation
November 18, 2013
As a city with a population of more than 90,000, new residents to the City of Beaverton are amazed by the number of sister cities partnerships the Beaverton Sister Cities Program has maintained over its 26 year history: six! Our first partnership was formed with Gotemba, Japan; the latest with Cluses, France; and plans for expansion into Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and China are being considered. With a mission to encourage cross-cultural understanding through promoting educational and economic exchange between the City of Beaverton and her sister cities around the world, our program is poised to celebrate the next 26 years and beyond.
Since becoming Mayor in 2008, and with substantial input from the Beaverton community, we have adopted a 10-point plan for achieving city goals which include economic development, cultural inclusion and sustainability. As a result of paying greater attention to our environment, the City of Beaverton has been honored with several environmental awards, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Communities and Mayor’s Climate Protection Award. What better way to celebrate these accomplishments than by sharing them with our six sister cities, students and dignitaries alike?
In 2011, the city hosted an International Sustainability Leadership Project inviting a total of 25 students from each of our six sister cities to collaborate with 25 local students to study and review findings on ways to work together to sustain our planet. The project concluded with a presentation to the visiting Mayors, as well as Beaverton business and community leaders. In 2013, our sister city Cheonan, South Korea hosted a Quality of Life seminar, inviting three young adults from Beaverton to study with students from China, France, the Philippines, and Zimbabwe, as well as Korea. The program followed a format similar to the ISL Project where students collaborated on a variety of environmental topics and reported findings to their respective Mayors. The positive response from business and civic leaders suggests this type of programming will be repeated.
Economic development is an important component of the city’s 10-point plan. Exchanges with our six sister cities often include visits to local businesses that otherwise might not happen. In 2010, one such exchange helped to open the door for a Beaverton business. This amazing opportunity benefitted the local business, which in turn has benefitted the city. We may not celebrate this level of success with every international exchange, but I am happy to report each visit improves the chances for future economic partnerships by keeping the lines of communication open.
With 25 percent of the city’s population born outside the U.S., the City of Beaverton has earned the reputation of being a very friendly, welcoming community. As a matter of fact, more than 100 languages are spoken in households throughout the city! With such a diverse population, cross-cultural understanding happens on the local level as well. The truly diverse Sister Cities Advisory Board is lucky to have sitting and recent members representing Armenia, China, Kenya, Korea, and Singapore. As the Sister Cities Program continues to maintain and develop partnerships on the global stage, so, too, will they have a partner organization beginning in 2014 to broaden local outreach in the community with the newly created Diversity Advisory Board.
When a member of the community asks why this program is important, as the Mayor of a member city of Sister Cities International, and a sister city to six treasured cities around the globe, I tell them the greatest reward is to hear a young adult returning from an international exchange say the experience was “life-changing” as they talk about forming and nurturing lifelong friendships. These future leaders continue the legacy of shrinking our global community by crafting bridges to cultural respect and understanding, as well as appreciating the necessity of protecting our environment—goals extremely important to the City of Beaverton and our community, both local and global.
