If you want to get an idea of President Barack Obama's priorities for the coming year before he even opens his mouth at tonight's state of the union address, just take a glance at who will be sitting in First Lady Michelle Obama's box.

Anita Maltbia, director of the Green Impact Zone project, a program to transform a distressed 150-block area in the heart of Kansas City by concentrating financial and human resources on the area and linking efforts to improve housing, energy efficiency, job creation and transportation, will be one of 20 or so special guests of the President and First Lady.

Among the topics President Obama is expected to address tonight are jobs, health care reform and helping the middle class. The program, which defines President Obama's new approach to federal urban policy, is a laboratory of sorts, where best practices will be exported to other urban areas.

"I don't think it gets any better than that. It shows excellent support on the part of the president and his administration for revitalization of our cities," Maltbia said in an interview with Aol. Black Voices.

Spearheaded by Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II, the zone was created to take advantage of the funds and opportunities in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Stimulating development and revitalization of America's cities will be key to the recovery of the entire country, said Maltbia.

"Cities are literally the heart of any area and statistics show that most people in the world live in the cities now. Most people would agree you cannot have an unhealthy heart. You can't disregard what is going on at the heart of your particular area and think the rest of the area will thrive," said Maltbia. "I don't think we as a country, we as a world, can afford to discount the human capital, the great resource that is the people that live here."So far, the Green Impact Zone has several projects in the works, involving conservation and job opportunities. The zone has partnered with Kansas City Power and Light to allow residents to use the rebates they would normally get from performing energy efficient renovations upfront. Residents sign those rebates over to contractors who perform the work without the homeowner being forced to pay first and wait for a rebate.

"For people who are struggling with income, this enables them to have energy efficiency things happening in their homes they would not be able to afford otherwise," said Maltbia.

In addition, there are groups of young people who are being taught concrete finishing skills. They can use those skills to earn a living and are performing work for people in the Green Impact Zone.

"The whole green genre is really a revolution. When computers became usable and available at the consumer level as opposed to being a function of businesses and big business, that was a revolution. This green conservation effort is a revolution that is spawning real education and real enterprise, which then leads to a whole new sector of employment," said Maltbia.

"You want to have people who have typically been at the tail end of the revolution, because of economic disinvestment, to have the opportunity to be at the front end of the revolution. It's going to be the way of this world."