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 Leaders is presented each fall to individuals who know their co
mmunities best because they live in, work in. and care for those communities, strengthening them from the inside. Known as “resident leaders,” these are the people who identify challenges in their communities as well as the solutions to those challenges.
The award is named in honor of Dorothy Mae Richardson, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who, alongside her neighbors, brought together lenders, government officials, businesspeople and residents to solve housing problems in Pittsburgh’s North Side. They turned disinvestment into investment, repairing homes and saving their community. Richardson’s model started a new form 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 award recipients, from this year and years past, visit our Dorothy Richardson Awards Page.
The NeighborWorks Founders Award is presented each year to long-serving housing and community develo
pment leaders from NeighborWorks’ network of nearly 250 local-serving organizations or from NeighborWorks America’s staff. It is NeighborWorks' way of honoring visionary leaders who have made a transformative impact over a 20-or-more-year career, leaders who set out to pave a new path forward for housing and community development. Their legacy includes NeighborWorks America, a Congressionally chartered national nonprofit that strives to make every community safer and more prosperous. The award is presented during the spring NeighborWorks Executive Symposium.
Read more about last year’s winner, Marcia Erickson of GROW South Dakota.
