Decatur, GA — The city of Decatur has been inducted into the National Civic League’s All-America Hall of Fame and was recognized for the city’s strategic planning process.

The National Civic League recognizes and celebrates the best in American civic innovation with the All-America City Award, which Decatur won in 2018. The Hall of Fame Award celebrates the work of past winners and recognizes outstanding civic engagement initiatives in communities since winning the All-America City Award, according to a press release from the city.

“The project that we are being recognized for is our strategic planning process and how we were able to pivot during the pandemic and the process that we are using to bring together as many folks and get as much input as we can aspart of our 2030 strategic plan,” Mayor Patti Garrett said at the June 7 City Commission meeting. 

The National Civic League inducted two communities this year into the Hall of Fame and those cities are the third and fourth communities to be inducted.

“We are happy to welcome Decatur into the Hall of Fame,” said Doug Linkhart, president of the National Civic League, in a press release. “Decatur’s ongoing commitment to community engagement, as evidenced by the recent strategic planning process, shows that the community meets the ideals of an All-American City.”

Garrett, who is the board chair of the National Civic League, spoke at the opening awards ceremony on Monday, June 7.

“The All-America City Award has recognized the best in civic innovation for over 70 years with over 500 communities receiving the designation and Decatur, Georgia, was thrilled to be recognized as an All-America City in 2018. The award has served to solidify our culture of engagement, collaboration and has brought the community a sense of real pride,” Garrett said during the opening ceremony.

This year the All-America City Awards recognized communities that worked to improved equity and resilience.

The National Civic League works to advance inclusive civic engagement through community assistance programs, award recognition programs and nationally recognized research and publications. The organization promotes efforts that seek to listen and learn from residents of communities in ongoing conversations and leverage those insights to help reshape communities so they will thrive, according to the press release.

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