The City Health Dashboard Selects 29 Cities for the Inaugural Put Us on the Map Challenge

Earlier this year, we announced the launch of the City Health Dashboard Put Us on the Map Challenge - an opportunity for smaller cities to make their case for why their city should be added to the Dashboard. We received many competitive applications from cities across the country, with applicants representing city government, universities, health departments, nonprofits, urban planning, and more.

While we originally planned to add up to 10 communities, we received so many great applications (with strong showings from Ohio and New Jersey!), that we had to choose more. Today, we are excited to announce the twenty nine communities we’ve selected for this inaugural Challenge: Asbury Park, NJ, Athens, OH, Belpre, OH, Bernards Township, NJ, Bound Brook & South Bound Brook, NJ, Charlottesville, VA, Chillicothe, OH, Cranbury, NJ, DeLand, FL, East Point, GA, Florence, SC, Freehold Borough, NJ, Hackensack, NJ, Hopewell, VA, Highlands, NJ, Hillsborough Township, NJ, Kingman, AZ, Linden, NJ, Marietta, OH, Morgantown, WV, Newburyport, MA, Petersburg, VA, Port Clinton, OH, Princeton, NJ, Rhinelander, WI, Village of Ridgewood, NJ, Roseburg, OR, and Spartanburg, SC.

Each of these communities – ranging in population from 4,000 to 50,000 - face unique challenges when it comes to health and has different ideas for how to drive change locally. But one common theme emerged across all of the applications, and that was the importance of having easily accessible, localized data - which many of our applicants currently lack - to help support efforts to improve health and equity for residents. In their applications, these cities described their plans to use Dashboard data for important health and well-being projects such as improving local housing and zoning policies in East Point, GA, evaluating the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion landscape in Charlottesville, VA, and supporting planning decisions related to the built environment, transportation, and walkability in Athens, OH.

Each selected city will receive a page on the City Health Dashboard and have access to their city and neighborhood-level data starting in summer 2022. They will be able to use all of the site’s features including exploring metric maps, comparing metrics within their city or comparing to other Dashboard cities, viewing demographic maps, accessing Take Action resources, and more. Cities will receive technical assistance from the Dashboard team to help them understand and leverage the data locally as well as networking opportunities with other Put Us on the Map cities to brainstorm and collaborate on solutions. Local success stories using Dashboard data will also be featured prominently on the website in order to inspire others eager to put data to action across the country.

We look forward to working with these smaller cities over the next year and elevating their work to advance health and equity for each of their community’s residents. Stay tuned over the coming months for exciting Put Us on the Map updates.