The Department of Communications is responsible for managing and coordinating all internal and external messaging for the organization. It oversees public relations, marketing campaigns, branding, social media, website content, media relations, and internal communications. The department ensures that information is clear, consistent, and aligned with the organization’s mission and goals. By developing strategic messaging and maintaining a strong public presence, the Communications Department helps build trust, strengthen reputation, and effectively engage key audiences.
The Department of Communications is responsible for managing and coordinating all internal and external messaging for the organization. It oversees public relations, marketing campaigns, branding, social media, website content, media relations, and internal communications. The department ensures that information is clear, consistent, and aligned with the organization’s mission and goals. By developing strategic messaging and maintaining a strong public presence, the Communications Department helps build trust, strengthen reputation, and effectively engage key audiences.
The Department of Communications for the City of Jackson is committed to keeping residents informed about important city initiatives, events, and public service updates. Through the News section, citizens can stay up to date on major announcements from city leadership, infrastructure improvements, public safety updates, and community programs taking place across Jackson.
Our goal is to provide timely and accurate information that helps residents stay engaged with what is happening in their city. The Communications Department works closely with city departments to share updates on policies, projects, and services that impact daily life in Jackson. From road improvements to community events, this page serves as a central place for official city news.
The City of Jackson believes that strong communication builds stronger communities. By regularly publishing news releases, media updates, and event highlights, the Department of Communications aims to increase transparency and strengthen the connection between local government and the people it serves. Residents are encouraged to check back frequently for the latest updates and announcements.
Mayor John Horhn Joins 10th Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Class
46 mayors from 15 countries, who together lead over 22 million people, selected for program built on a decade of improving how municipalities serve.
Other Jackson officials begin participation in August.
JACKSON, MS — Mayor John Horhn today announced being selected as one of the 46 mayors from 15 countries for the tenth class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Through the nine-month professional management program, Mayor Horhn, alongside two City of Jackson officials who will begin in August, will gain strategies to improve how local government works and move residents’ chief priorities forward.
“I’m honored to be part of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, and I’m eager to bring what I learn back home to improve city services for the residents of Jackson,” said Mayor John Horhn. “I plan to use this experience to sharpen our approach to problem-solving and deliver a more effective government for our city.”
The flagship Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is at the center of more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Government Innovation program to strengthen mayoral leadership and local government across the globe. Today, it is where the world’s mayors come to learn and to lead. Mayor Horhn will join them.
Established with Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Initiative will have now served 447 mayors, including eight in ten of America’s big-city mayors and nine of England’s mayoral strategic authorities alongside over 3,000 municipal chiefs.
“Mayors sit at the first and last mile of every major problem we face, and we built the Government Innovation program to ensure they have the capacity required to lead,” said James Anderson, who leads the Government Innovation program at Bloomberg Philanthropies. “The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is at its center, and in a moment that demands more from public leadership than ever, this class will have that world of support behind them. We look forward to these mayors putting it to work, and all that their city halls will do.”
Through the Initiative, Mayor Horhn will work alongside Harvard faculty, policy experts, veteran managers, and fellow mayors—periodically in classrooms, virtual sessions, and in the field—beginning with a multi-day convening in New York City this week. Participants learn to organize teams around outcomes, ground decisions in evidence, and collaborate across departments and sectors—applying lessons directly to the issues at home, from housing and affordability to economic growth, public safety, and emergency response.
Once the coursework ends, Jackson remains eligible for more: professional education for senior officials in economic development, human resources, procurement, and civic engagement; a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow, placed for up to two years on a priority the mayor sets; and research and instructional material developed across the program’s first decade.
“Leading a city is among the hardest jobs in public service anywhere as the demands on mayors—and the complex challenges they face—continue to grow,” said Jorrit de Jong, Director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University and Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School. “Meeting those challenges requires city halls to continually strengthen how they work, and with Michael R. Bloomberg’s unwavering backing, we built the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative to help them do just that—and every mayor teaches us in return. With a decade of that insight and research behind this tenth class, we expect their city halls to deliver at home and push the program’s work—and the field itself—further still.”
The tenth class of mayors represents 28 U.S. and 18 international cities, home to more than 22 million residents. They include: Mayor Dorcey Applyrs of Albany, NY; Mayor Ron Bernal of Antioch, CA; Mayor Sean Ryan of Buffalo, NY; Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui of Cambridge, MA; Mayor Stephen M. Morris of Concord, NC; Mayor Shenise Turner-Sloss of Dayton, OH; Mayor Mary Sheffield of Detroit, MI; Mayor Sharon Tucker of Fort Wayne, IN; Mayor John Horhn of Jackson, MS; Mayor James Solomon of Jersey City, NJ; Mayor Christal Watson of Kansas City, KS; Mayor Jaime Arroyo of Lancaster, PA; Mayor Eileen Higgins of Miami, FL; Mayor John Ewing of Omaha, NE; Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland, OR; Mayor Marsha Judkins of Provo, UT; Mayor Angela Birney of Redmond, WA; Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones of San Antonio, TX; Mayor Michael Garcia of Santa Fe, NM; Mayor Van Johnson of Savannah, GA; Mayor Jake Wilson of Somerville, MA; Mayor James Mueller of South Bend, IN; Mayor Lisa Brown of Spokane, WA; Mayor Kaohly Her of St. Paul, MN; Mayor Christina Fugazi of Stockton, CA; Mayor Sharon Owens of Syracuse, NY; Mayor Anders Ibsen of Tacoma, WA; Mayor Spencer Duncan of Topeka, KS; Mayor Maude Marquis-Bissonnette of Gatineau, Canada; Mayor Sophie Barker of Dunedin, New Zealand; Mayor Mahé Drysdale of Tauranga, New Zealand; Mayor Sam Nujoma of Khomas Region, Namibia; Mayor Fatiha El Moudni of Rabat, Morocco; Mayor Richard Shakespeare of Dublin, Ireland; Mayor Stephan Keller of Düsseldorf, Germany; Mayor Mathias De Clercq of Ghent, Belgium; Mayor Carlos Moedas of Lisbon, Portugal; Mayor Helen Godwin of West of England, UK; Mayor Tomislav Tomašević of Zagreb, Croatia; Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán of Bogotá, Colombia; Mayor Agustín Iglesias of Independencia, Chile; Mayor Andrew Swaby of Kingston, Jamaica; Mayor Felipe Alessandri of Lo Barnechea, Chile; Mayor Esteban Allasino of Luján de Cuyo, Argentina; Mayor Sebastián Sichel of Ñuñoa, Chile; and Mayor Ramón Lanús of San Isidro, Argentina.
Alumni of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative include Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and mayor of South Bend, IN; Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and mayor of Atlanta, GA; Mayor Muriel Bowser of the District of Columbia; Andy Burnham, Member of Parliament for Makerfield and former Mayor of Greater Manchester, UK; Mayor Misty Buscher of Springfield, IL; Mayor William Cogswell of Charleston, SC; Uruguay Vice President Carolina Cosse and former mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay; Mayor Patrick Farrell of Huntington, WV; John Giles, former mayor of Mesa, AZ; Claudia López, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia; Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell of Cedar Rapids, IA; Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, MD; and Mayor Paul TenHaken of Sioux Falls, SD.
The flagship Initiative has also informed parallel efforts worldwide. The most recent is the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative, whose inaugural class included 30 mayors and 60 senior officials from 17 countries.
Through these leadership programs, Jackson enters Bloomberg Philanthropies’ broader Government Innovation portfolio and global community of practice, tens of thousands of mayors and municipal officials strong, who draw on each other’s work to better the lives of the hundreds of millions of residents they collectively serve.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 700 cities and 150 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on creating lasting change in five key areas: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world. In 2025, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $4.3 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and X.
About the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative:
The flagship Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is at the center of more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen mayoral leadership and local government across the globe. Established with Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Initiative will have now served 447 mayors and over 3,000 senior municipal officials, including 8 in 10 of America’s big city mayors and 9 of England’s mayoral strategic authorities. Today, it is where many of the world’s most accomplished mayors come to learn—and to lead. For more information, please visit cityleadership.harvard.edu or visit us on LinkedIn and X.
About the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University:
Founded in 2021 with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University serves a global community committed to improving public management, leadership, and governance. The Center’s cross-Harvard collaboration unites expertise focused on cities across disciplines and schools to produce research, train leaders, and develop resources for global use. The center is designed to have widespread impact on the future of cities, where more than half of the world’s people now live, by informing and inspiring local government leaders, scholars, students, and others who work to improve the lives of residents around the world. For more information, please visit cities.harvard.edu or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.
Update on Relocation of Residents and Cooling Tent
A cooling tent will open on Monday at 9:00 a.m. The location of the cooling tent is at the Jackson Police Training Academy (3000 St. Charles Street, Jackson, MS). JPD will provide 24 hour security.
Stewpot is providing shelter for some of the former residents of Grand Chateau Apartments via Matt’s House. Other residents are being temporarily housed in hotels. “We will follow-up next week with those who need housing assistance to connect them with housing resources,” said Reverend Jill Buckley, Executive Director of Stewpot. “These hot days are dangerous for all of us, but especially for those who have no reprieve from the high temperatures. We are glad to work with the city to provide relief for our neighbors.” Stewpot is providing lunch on two days and will loan 25 cots to the cooling center.
“I want to thank our nonprofit partners including Stewpot Community Services, and city and state government officials for stepping up so quickly,” said Mayor John Horhn. “When people need help, it takes partners across the nonprofit, corporate, and state government sectors working together.”
City of Jackson Responds to Conditions at Grand Chateau Apartments
JACKSON, Miss. — The City of Jackson is responding to unsafe living conditions at Grand Chateau Apartments after the property’s owner closed the complex in May 2025. Despite the closure, a number of residents remained in the building. Entergy discovered the ongoing occupancy and disconnected power to the property for safety reasons.
The City has identified emergency funding to help relocate residents to safer housing. The Jackson Fire Department has been dispatched to the site to deliver water and conduct wellness checks on residents still living there. The City’s Constituent Services Office has also been sent to the scene to assess the situation and determine what additional support is needed.
Mayor John Horhn spoke with the State Health Officer and secured approval to set up a cooling tent for residents. The exact location will be announced once its confirmed.
Mayor Horhn has also arranged for Matt’s House Shelter for Women and Children to provide housing for women affected by the closure who need a place to stay. The City is coordinating with Stewpot Community Services, which will be on site this afternoon to begin working directly with residents on relocation.
“We’re moving quickly to get people into safe housing and to make sure their immediate needs are met,” said Mayor Horhn. “Our team will continue working on relocating the residents.”
Mayor Horhn is monitoring the city for similar situations involving closed housing and will take action as needed if other properties are identified.
First Lady Horhn Calls for Community Support for Foster Youth
Jackson, Miss. – Recently, First Lady Lydia Gail Horhn joined the Mississippi Southern First Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Church of God in Christ, Inc. (COGIC) for a powerful Gathering of worship and fellowship, where she served as a guest speaker and helped shine a light on the urgent needs within the foster care system.
During her remarks, First Lady Horhn highlighted the reality facing thousands of children, both in Mississippi and nationwide, including the shortage of licensed foster homes, the challenges tied to neglect and parental substance abuse, and the more than 20,000 youth who age out of the national system each year without permanent family support.
She encouraged attendees to take action by mentoring, tutoring, and supporting foster youth as they prepare for adulthood, whether through guidance on education and careers, or by helping meet critical needs like transportation, mental health services, and financial literacy.
“Stronger support for foster youth helps create safer communities and opens the door to brighter futures for our children,” said First Lady Horhn. “Each small act of care and guidance can change the course of a child’s life.”
The First Lady also commended COGIC and Davis Temple COGIC for elevating this important issue and supporting both children and the professionals who serve them.
Statement from Mayor John Horhn
I respect the concerns raised by our JTRAN operators and I recognize the important role they play in keeping Jackson moving every day. The union has expressed concerns about the microtransit component of the proposal, while the service provider believes it could be a cost-saving measure. We are carefully evaluating both perspectives to determine what makes the most sense for our riders, our workers, and our taxpayers.
My priority is to avoid any disruption in service while ensuring that our drivers are treated fairly and that residents who depend on public transit can continue to get to work, school, medical appointments, and other destinations.
Statement from the City of Jackson
The City of Jackson has determined that the “Cruising on Capitol” event scheduled for Saturday, July 25, 2026, will not move forward at this time.
In light of recent concerns, the City must ensure that any future event of this kind is properly regulated, and supported by clear conditions that protect the public, neighboring properties, and City operations.
The City remains open to considering future events that meet all necessary requirements.
The Communications Department serves as the primary point of contact for members of the media and the public seeking official information from the City. This section provides media contact information for press inquiries, access to the city’s press release archive, and guidelines for requesting interviews or filming on city property. Journalists and media representatives can use this page to find the appropriate contacts, review official announcements, and learn the procedures for coordinating interviews with city officials or staff. Guidance for photography, video recording, and news coverage requests is also provided to help ensure an organized and timely response.
