Mayor Michael Hancock is set to receive a big award in a ceremony in Denver Monday morning.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ managing director, Jeffrey Bean, will present Hancock with the organization’s Partner America 2017 Small Business Advocate Award.

The award was announced last month.

“From early in his career, Mayor Hancock ha(d) the urge to lend a helping hand to his community from overseeing the first-ever training programs for 11,000 inner-city children at the Denver Housing Authority, to becoming the youngest leader of the Urban League in Denver – the youngest leader in any given chapter in the U.S.,” the Conference of Mayors said.

The presentation is planned for 9 a.m.  at The Commons on Champa at 1245 Champa St.

Among the presentations, keynote speaker Curtis Cello is expected to discuss overcoming challenges in sales, operations and profitability for small businesses.

Eric Hiraga, executive director of the Denver Office of Economic Development, is scheduled  provide an update on the various small business development programs and services offered by the city.

The award is sponsored by Partner America, the conference’s public-private partnership that helps mayors prove small businesses with resources and information to boost them in the local and global marketplaces.

Just last week Hancock observed Small Business Saturday by making the rounds, CBS 4 reported.

“Over 80 percnt of our businesses in Denver are small business and they employ almost 50 percent of the people who work in our city, so it’s important that we strengthen them by shopping them and by going in and spending our money with them,” Hancock told reporter Joel Hillan.

“When we stop shopping locally and we stop shopping physically in those stores and those other retail outlets, they go away those are jobs and those are investments that we lose and those are very important and hurt our economy.”