City of Davis wins award for Healthy Davis Together collaboration

The City of Davis was awarded a Beacon Leadership and Innovation Award by the Institute for Local Government (ILG) for cross-agency collaboration for partnering with UC Davis on the Healthy Davis Together (HDT) project. Healthy Davis Together helped prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the city and coordinated the gradual return of UC Davis students back into the community.

Healthy Davis Together (HDT) launched in September 2020 and within a few months, started free, saliva-based testing at multiple locations throughout the city. This month, HDT reached the milestone of one million tests conducted (including those from the expanded county project Healthy Yolo Together).

“The Davis community’s incredible ability to come together is the lynchpin to Healthy Davis Together’s success,” Associate Dean for Public Health Sciences at UC Davis and Project Director of Healthy Davis Together, Brad Pollock, said. “The spirit of collaboration was evident from the very first conversation we had among community, city and university leaders, when the program was only an idea, and it has remained a true partnership ever since.”

The initiative also provided community outreach on testing, business-focused outreach and assistance to promote healthy behaviors, safe opening plans for businesses and schools, and vaccine availability.

“Our community is grateful and fortunate for this project that helped to protect our health and is assisting us to rebound as a university town,” Mayor, Gloria Partida, said. “We are proud to receive the Beacon Leadership and Innovation Award that recognizes the many months of hard work by so many HDT partners.”

The Innovation and Leadership Awards aim to celebrate local governments’ efforts to implement collaborative, inclusive and equitable climate resilience and adaptation programming. In addition to the City of Davis, ILG recognized the cities of Fremont, Irvine, Truckee and Manhattan Beach with Beacon Leadership and Innovation Awards.

For a complete list of achievements, visit www.ca-ilg.org/award-winners