It’s been a challenge recently for the city of Niles to find residents to serve on boards and commissions.

In an effort to drum up more community involvement, City Administrator Ric Huff has rolled out an email program to disseminate information.

The Community Involvement Notification Program will send out email blasts to organizations, agencies, churches and businesses about vacancies on committees, boards and jobs for the city.

“I think the lack of citizen participation stems from people just not hearing about it,” Huff said. “So we’re looking at new avenues to get the word out.”

Huff’s assistant, Diane Bass, said eight organizations have signed up for the email updates, covering 1,600 people.

The service is not intended for individual people’s email accounts, Huff said.

If a group is interested in receiving community involvement notifications, email dbass@nilesmi.org. Include the name of the group, the number of members or clients and an email address to receive the notifications.