Danville was awarded Wednesday night the prestigious 2020 All-America City designation by the National Civic League. The city is one of only 10 communities nationwide to receive this designation, which is awarded annually to recognize communities that are best tackling critical challenges.
The announcement came during an awards ceremony that was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This award affirms our commitment to reimagining the community in which we live,” Mayor Alonzo Jones said following the announcement. “We are a city that acknowledges our challenges. We embrace those challenges by forming partnerships to bring about change. Together, we learn from others, build frameworks, and plant seeds.”
For 2020, communities were invited to showcase their work specifically on creating a healthy community for all, particularly populations experiencing poorer health outcomes. In Danville, tackling health equity is the work of many partners.
Those partners include:
- Danville Parks and Recreation
- Danville Regional Foundation
- The Health Collaborative
- Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
- Virginia Department of Health
- Averett University
- DRHA
- Virginia Cooperative Extension
Danville’s application for the All-America City Awards highlighted three health equity efforts: the Fit Mobile program, the work of the Danville Youth Health Equity Leadership Institute (YHELI), and the Community Health Worker initiative.
For those efforts, Danville was named in March as one of the finalists for the awards.
Danville representatives initially were invited to Denver in June to compete for the award, but that event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, Danville joined finalists this week in a virtual conference, during which the cities made their final presentations.
In addition to Danville, nine other cities received the All-America City designation for 2020: Algoma, Wis.; El Paso, Texas; Franklin, Tenn.; Miami Gardens, Fla.; Muncie, Ind.; Portsmouth, Ohio; Rochester, N.Y.; Pitt County, N.C.; Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.;
Also, Danville won an award for best use of social media during the virtual conference.
For more information, visit www.danvilleva.gov/AAC2020.