A neighborhood council is a governmental or non-governmental body, whose purpose is promote citizen participation in local government. The organization serves as a point of contact between the main city government and the city's residents, through functions such as publishing community newsletters to communicate civic and political issues to the community, making advisory recommendations to the citywide government on the community's needs and its views on governmental policies and issues, and direct participation in the management of neighborhood projects and facilities.
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Neighborhood councils can be found in many cities throughout the world, especially but not exclusively in large metropolitan cities.
The concept is similar but not identical to neighborhood associations, in that while a neighborhood association is generally a private non-profit organization, a neighborhood council is a governmental structure in which multiple distinct neighborhood associations may be participants.
History
The concept has its origins in the 19th-century emergence of "social centers" or "city clubs", community organizations which were formed in the northeastern United States to provide a forum for citizens to engage in debate on local political issues. In 1917, the city of Edmonton, Alberta in Canada became one of the first cities in the world to directly formalize social centers as a local government structure, when George Hall, a native of Providence, Rhode Island who had been hired as the city's commissioner of industry in 1912, began implementing a local system of community leagues to assist in addressing the rapidly growing city's social development challenges.
Canada
In addition to Edmonton, other cities in Canada that have systems of neighbourhood councils include Greater Sudbury, where they are called community action networks, and Quebec City.
United States
In the United States, such councils are active in Los Angeles, California, Tacoma, Washington, and San Diego, California among other cities. They are designed to include representatives of the many diverse interests and needs in the communities that make up a city, providing an advisory role on issues of concern.