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Wayfinding Project Helps Point Diamond Hill Community Toward a Stronger Future

Joyce E. Williams,

AARP Virginia

Published June 01, 2026

Courtesy Joyce E. Williams

A new wayfinding project at the Dunbar Community Schoolyard in Lynchburg is doing far more than helping residents find their way through a public space. Community leaders say it is helping point the historic Diamond Hill neighborhood toward a stronger, more connected future.

Funded through the AARP Community Challenge grant program, the project is part of a broader effort funded by a Community Development Block Grant to revitalize the Dunbar Community Schoolyard, a 16-acre shared public space surrounding the Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School of Innovation.

The schoolyard stretches across six blocks and serves both students and residents of Diamond Hill. New signage uses text, symbols, images and color to help residents navigate the campus while encouraging greater use of the space for walking, recreation, socialization and community gatherings.

The project grew out of a two-year neighborhood planning process that engaged residents, stakeholders, and city leaders in shaping a vision for Diamond Hill — one centered on connection, livability and shared history. The resulting neighborhood plan was unanimously adopted by Lynchburg City Council in December 2024.

The improvements come at an important time for the neighborhood. Approximately 43 percent of Diamond Hill residents are 50 or older, and many expressed interests in using the schoolyard’s pathways, track, seating areas and athletic spaces for exercise and social interaction.

Grace Dean, an AARP community outreach volunteer and graduate of the original Dunbar High School, said the project represents both practical progress and symbolic hope for the community.

“The AARP Community Challenge, which provided the funding for this project, is a grant program designed to support projects that deliver tangible improvements to communities and spark long-term change,” Dean said during the dedication ceremony. “AARP is deeply committed to helping make communities like ours more livable and age-friendly.”

Dean noted that the signage will benefit not only current students and their families, but also longtime neighborhood residents.

“These wayfinding signs will not only help the students and families here at the Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle School of Innovation, but they will symbolize direction and the ongoing transformation for the Diamond Hill community,” she said.

The schoolyard improvements already underway include landscaping, pathways, fencing, spectator areas and seating. Community leaders believe the new signage system will help clarify that the campus is a welcoming public space open to residents when school is not in session.

“Today’s dedication is much more than wayfinding signs,” Dean said. “It is a visible step in a larger comprehensive plan that will strengthen and uplift the Diamond Hill community — a community rich with history, pride and resilience.”