Sibling Cities USA

01/09/2025

Our Founder & CEO, Vicki Veenker, has been elected Vice-Mayor of Palo Alto for 2025! 🏛️✨

Vicki is a dynamic, innovative leader who wears many hats, all with compassion and kindness. 💡❤️ The citizens of Palo Alto agree, and so do we!

Join us in congratulating her on this incredible achievement! 👏🎊

10/26/2024

Earlier in October, Palo Alto had the pleasure of hosting the Mayor and some of its Sibling City, Bloomington’s citizens for a SCUSA Connection Weekend. This was the 3rd such weekend since SCUSA’s inception. As the name suggests, this weekend was all about connections, conversations, and collaborations. The focus, this time around, was on Housing. The weekend culminated in a hybrid cross-city town hall – “Housing: A Home for All?” which was well attended by the citizens, neighbors, and key players in each city.

We were happy to have Mayor Kerry Thomson, Margaret Vanschaik, Jerono Rotich, and Elaine Amerson for making the trip, along with Alain Barker, and Kyle Stirling, members of the Bloomington Planning team. We missed Shelley Taylor Young.

We are grateful to Mayor Greer Stone, Council members, as well as City Manager Ed Shikada and the executives and staff of City of Palo Alto for their ongoing support.

A big shout out to the folks behind the tours of California Avenue, and the upcoming Public Safety Building, and the Palo Alto museum.

We also greatly appreciate the two organizations that played a significant role in hosting - Palo Alto University Rotary and Neighbors Abroad of Palo Alto.

And, many, many thanks to our generous sponsors! Thank you for continuing to believe in this beautiful project which aims to help knit back our country back together, two cities at a time.

~ With Vicki Veenker, CEO- SCUSA, The SCUSA Palo Alto Planning team of Jyotika RoyC, Linda Lenoir, Wayne Thompson, and Joan Fantazia.

10/10/2024

Come, listen to Bloomington, IN's Mayor and Palo Alto's Planning Director this Sunday on one of the most important topics - Housing: A Home for All?

Come, share and learn from each other, across miles but with similar challenges.

Details in the pic.

Bloomingtonians register here: https://bit.ly/4eNCSyF

Palo Altans, register here for an in-person meeting: https://forms.gle/vi8dEVu4oSCEWgww5

City of Bloomington, IN - Parks and Recreation
City of Palo Alto - Public Agency
Palo Alto University Rotary
Rotary Club of Palo Alto
Rotary Club of Bloomington

10/04/2024

Next week is the Connection Weekend!!

A Bloomington delegation will visit Palo Alto and experience the multiple facets of the sibling city-to-city exchange and connect with counterparts.

As part of this weekend, on Sunday, October 13th, we will host a town hall 'Housing: A Home for All?'. Details in the pic.

Bloomingtonians register here: https://bit.ly/4eNCSyF

In-person attendees in Palo Alto, register here: https://forms.gle/vi8dEVu4oSCEWgww5

City of Bloomington, IN - Parks and Recreation
City of Palo Alto - Public Agency
Palo Alto University Rotary
Rotary Club of Palo Alto

09/20/2024

We have news to share about next week’s event!

To make it open to as wide an audience as possible, we’ve decided to host the Democracy: Voter Access & Turnout conversation ONLINE only.

The registration for the event is also shifting to Zoom. : https://bit.ly/3TvSVsA

Same agenda, same great speakers, just online. With facilitated breakout rooms.

We look forward to having you with us. Lets share and learn from each other.



City of Palo Alto - Public Agency
City of Bloomington, IN - Parks and Recreation
League of Women Voters of Palo Alto
League of Women Voters Bloomington-Monroe County, Indiana
Palo Alto University Rotary
Rotary Club of Palo Alto

09/01/2024

We are excited to announce the Introductory Speakers for our 'Democracy: Voter Access & Turnout' town hall on Sept. 29th.

Come hear Dr. Scott Shackelford, Provost Professor of Business Law and Ethics, Indiana University and Affiliated Scholar at Stanford, on how the national landscape on voter access has changed since the last Presidential election.

Learn from representatives of the League of Women Voters’ chapters in each city, Dr. Debora (Ralf) Jane Shaw and Rachel Kellerman, along with Mark Fraley, of the Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) program at Indiana University, who will share statistics on voter access & turnout and efforts to increase them locally.

And, then, engage in a healthy and meaningful dialog with both your local compatriots and citizens of your sibling city, to explore what more can be done.

Here are the details:
Topic: Democracy: Voter Access and Turnout
Date: Sunday, September 29
Bloomington: 4-5:30pm ET: Monroe County Public Library, Room 1B/C, 303 E Kirkwood
Palo Alto: 1-2:30pm PT: Mitchell Park Community Center, El Palo Alto room, 3700 Middlefield

To register, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/3z0v4dr

If you are interested in learning more about Sibling Cities, please visit our website and fill out a contact form. https://www.siblingcitiesusa.org/contact

League of Women Voters of Palo Alto
League of Women Voters Bloomington-Monroe County, Indiana
Palo Alto University Rotary

08/22/2024

Following the very successful joint town halls with residents of Bloomington and Palo Alto over the last year, Sibling Cities USA is excited to announce an upcoming conversation deeply relevant to the November Election: “Voter Access and Turnout”. Citizens from each city will meet in-person and connect with their counterparts, virtually, for an engaging discussion.

Here are the details:
Topic: Democracy: Voter Access and Turnout
Date: Sunday, September 29
Bloomington: 4-6pm ET: Monroe County Public Library, Room 1B/C, 303 E Kirkwood
Palo Alto: 1-3pm PT: Mitchell Park Community Center, El Palo Alto room, 3700 Middlefield
To register, please sign up here: https://bit.ly/3z0v4dr

If you are interested in learning more about Sibling Cities, please visit our website and fill out a contact form. https://www.siblingcitiesusa.org/contact

01/22/2024

12/06/2023

12/04/2023

At Sibling Cities USA, we’re still riding high from the terrific climate Townhall yesterday! It was exciting to trade ideas and realize our potential collective impact!

Page last updated on November 30, 2023 at 3:59 pm November 29, 2023 For more information, please contact Angela Van Rooy, Interim Communications Director, Office of the Mayor [email protected] or 812-349-3505 Climate Action Town Hall Connecting Bloomington and Palo Alto Can two citie...

11/12/2023

Join our Race & Belonging Town Hall tomorrow, Sunday, November 12.

Watch our new video about how both cities grappled with the shared legacy of David Starr Jordan, President of Indiana University and Stanford University’s first President, and also a leader in the eugenics movement. Hear how both cities worked through renaming decisions.

Come Early! The agenda is packed, so doors open at 12:45 in Palo Alto and 3:45 in Bloomington. We’ll start promptly at 1:00/4:00 to finish before the library closes in Bloomington.

Our agenda includes:
-Land Acknowledgements from Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou and Bloomington Council Member Jim Sims
-A group discussion moderated by Robert Thomas, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, and Carmund White, Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, both at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, and Rev. Kaloma Smith, Palo Alto Human Relations Commission Chair
-Stacey Scott Rickman, Culture and Inclusion Manager, IU Foundation will provide demographic context and background information for our discussion, along with Palo Alto students Julian Hong and Chania Rene-Corail
-Mentimeter word clouds to capture attendee views about Belonging.

To register, visit siblingcitiesusa.org/events