Print pageEach year, NeighborWorks® America presents national awards to people who make a significant impact in the communities they serve.
The Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership goes to resident leaders – people who know their communities best because they live in, work in and care for those communities, and strengthen them from the inside. The NeighborWorks Founders Award is presented each year to long-serving housing and community development leaders, those who are from NeighborWorks’ network of nearly 250 local-serving organizations or from NeighborWorks’ staff, who have made a transformative impact over 20 or more years.
The Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership is named in honor of Dorothy Mae Richardson, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who, together with her neighbors, brought together bankers, government officials, businesspeople and residents to solve housing problems in Pittsburgh’s North Side. They curbed disinvestment and started a revolving loan fund, repairing homes and saving their community. Richardson’s model started a new from of community development, one that centered resident voices. That model became the model for NeighborWorks America. The Dorothy Richardson Award has been presented to recipients across the United States since 1992.
For stories about recipients of the award, dating back from this year to 2010, visit the Dorothy Richardson Awards Page.
The NeighborWorks Founders Award is NeighborWorks’ way of honoring visionary leaders who set out to pave a new path forward for housing and community development, leaders who were driven to build organizations in partnership with residents to strengthen their neighborhoods. Their legacy is NeighborWorks America, a Congressionally chartered national nonprofit that strives to make every community safer and more prosperous. The award is presented each year during the NeighborWorks Executive Symposium, held in the spring.
Read more about last year’s winner, Marcia Erickson of GROW South Dakota.
