Huntington

In 2018, Huntington was named one of ten winners of the Cities of Service City Hall AmeriCorps VISTA Love Your Block competition. Cities of Service awarded each winning city $25,000 to be used for mini-grants and provides ongoing technical assistance and resources to support the efforts of citizen groups and local nonprofits to fight property blight through home repairs, lot transformations, and community cleanups.

The Love Your Block Program in the West End of Huntington is just one example of volunteer-driven initiatives that are addressing specific challenges. In the city’s Highlawn and Fairfield communities, the city has facilitated the formation of the Fairfield Alliance and Happy Healthy Highlawn. These are citizen-led programs that are determining the vision for each neighborhood and developing master plans from that vision.

In 2018, Huntington was a finalist for the Cities of Service Engaged Cities Award for its “hub-and-spoke” citizen-engagement approach to foster healthy living. The award elevates city-led strategies that most successfully engage citizens to help create and implement solutions to pressing local problems. The city served as a hub for residents and community stakeholders, helping them develop initiatives that fostered healthy choices, such as a community-led farmers market and exercise programs. They reduced the obesity rate from 49 percent to 35 percent.