New Session of Citizens' Academy Scheduled

Bethlehem is planning to re-start its Citizens' Academy program, an 11-week course designed to teach city residents how city government works.

Registration for the 2012 Bethlehem Citizens Academy starts online at 9 a.m. this morning. To register go to www.bethlehem-pa.gov/about/citizensacademy/. The program is limited to 25 persons per session.

Classes will begin on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 and will take place at various working locations within the City.

Participants enrolled in the Citizens’ Academy will attend one, two-hour session per week, for 11 weeks. During each session, participants will view in-depth presentations and demonstrations of the inner workings of local government.

“The purpose of the Citizens' Academy was to give a small group of residents a bird’s eye view of what we do,” said Mayor John Callahan through a news release.

“Citizen participation input is critical to understand how we are delivering our city services and in a world of limited budgets which services we should prioritize. It is the taxpayers’ dollars at work and they should have some say in how they are spent.”

Callahan started the program in 2009 to “increase transparency in the way the City operates, while at the same time expanding the city’s volunteer capacity and building a new generation of leaders in Bethlehem.”