The NAHRO Community Innovation Awards Program (previously the NAHRO Award of Merit Program) gives national recognition to the achievement and innovation of NAHRO members; to provide additional opportunities to inform the public of best practices in housing and community development; and to create a resource bank of information on significant, innovative activities performed by housing and redevelopment agencies and community development departments. Since 1989, NAHRO has honored more than 6,000 programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Awards of Merit<\/strong> applications are reviewed, evaluated and winners selected by Regional Juries. The Awards of Excellence<\/strong> are awarded to the best entries in each category from among the Award of Merit winners. Here’s a quick overview of the 2025 Awards of Merit description, eligibility requirements, and deadlines<\/a>. (PDF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Awards Application consists of two main parts:
A Program Summary<\/strong> — describes the program in 700 characters with spaces or less.
A Program Narrative<\/strong> — detailed overview addressing a set list of questions\/topics in 15,000 characters with spaces or less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may wish to prepare your draft application in Microsoft Word and then use that document to copy and paste into the online entry portal. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Resident and Client Services<\/strong>
Includes programs that enhance the lives of residents and clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Community Revitalization<\/strong>
Includes programs that have a positive economic impact on a neighborhood or city, i.e. balanced growth, economic development, job creation; creative financing, public\/private partnerships, mixed-use developments, neighborhood preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Administrative Innovation <\/strong>
Includes programs that improve the efficiency or effectiveness of administrative operations or the general functioning of the agency, i.e. management systems, maintenance, community relations, inter-agency cooperation, computer use, professional development and public relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Affordable Housing<\/strong>
Includes programs that produce affordable housing in an innovative manner, i.e. creative financing, public\/private partnerships, mixed income developments, adaptive reuse, special needs housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5. Project Design <\/strong>
Focuses primarily on the physical or landscape design of a building or project. (If what is most innovative is the program or financing rather than the design, the program should be entered in one of the other categories listed above.) There are four types of design:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All applications must comply with the following requirements to be considered for an award:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For more information on NAHRO membership, please visit: Membership information<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please review the category critera here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are working on an application and need to return to it, make sure to click “save for later<\/strong>” button. Do not click Checkout until you are ready to move to the shopping cart and pay. <\/strong>When ready, click yes to agree to terms\/conditions, then proceed to checkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n