A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

       FOR RELEASE                                     Contact: Rodger D. Murphey     October 11, 1996                                         (202) 401-1576

Vice President's Hammer Award Goes to Kansas City Civil Rights Office

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Vice President Al Gore's Hammer Award, recognizing outstanding examples of reinventing government, was presented Wednesday to the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights in Kansas City.

The award honored the Kansas City office for developing a faster, friendlier approach to civil rights compliance reviews in its region, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska, as well as Missouri.

Norma Cant?, assistant U.S. education secretary for civil rights, represented Vice President Gore in presenting the award to Jim Littlejohn, director of the Kansas City regional headquarters of the civil rights office.

The Hammer Award was named in recognition of the infamous $400 government hammers of years past. The plaque consists of a $6 hammer, a ribbon and a card from Vice President Gore -- all in an aluminum frame.

What prompted the Kansas City honor was the office's new "Profile, Assessment and Resolution" approach to compliance reviews. It replaced a lengthier, sometimes more confrontational audit and review process.

Under the new program, the civil rights office shares its expertise with that of state and local school officials, parents, and other community members to reach effective solutions to high priority civil rights issues. Traditional compliance reviews could sometimes take months. Now, they are usually resolved with school officials in 30 to 45 days.

The partnership approach has also resulted in far fewer staff resources being expended. Among the program's new features:

meetings with state and local school officials and the public;
clear communication, providing everyone with simple statements of the legal issues under consideration;
assisting school officials in conducting assessments of their policies and practices;
providing school officials with immediate feedback;
looking for answers, not problems, by working with school officials to resolve any identified civil rights concerns; and,
offering follow up technical assistance.

"We love the Profile, Assessment and Resolution approach in Kansas and appreciate the region's helpful and constructive way of working with our schools," said Dale Dennis, interim chief state school officer in Kansas.

Like all civil rights regional enforcement offices, Kansas City's staff of 50 investigators, attorneys and others ensure that schools comply with civil rights laws.

The statutes prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, disability and age in institutions that receive federal money.

Almost 600 Hammer Awards have been presented to federal, state and local employees working to build a better government. The awards are made to teams -- not individuals -- who have made significant contributions in support of President Clinton's National Performance Review. Its guiding principles are to put customers first, cut red tape, empower employees and get "back to the basics."

Nominations for the awards originate from numerous sources, including departments and agencies submitting their own success stories, as well as from state and local governments and private enterprises.

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