Innovative Community Development Award
The purpose of the Innovative Community Development Award is to provide recognition of successful programs and projects taking place in Arkansas communities, and to promote best practices in community development across the state. A community may be a city, county, neighborhood, region of the state, or may encompass the entire state; nominations will be grouped according to population and evaluated among other similarly sized communities. The program or project must have been ongoing during the year from July 1, 2007-June 30, 2008. Awards will be based on the following categories:
1. Using Assets for Community Development
2. Preparation and Planning
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Assessing Your Local Economy: Industry Composition & Economic Impact Analysis
Community Development Assessments
Workforce Training for the 21st Century
Strategic Planning and Visioning for Community Development
Conservation Design (“Green” community development)
3. Programming Techniques and Strategies
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Community Asset Mapping and Surveys
Marketing the Community
Tourism-Based Development
Retention and Expansion of Existing Businesses
Entrepreneurial Development
4. Issues in Community Development
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Creative partnerships
“Giant step”
5. Evaluation
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Progress Evaluation and Community Indicators
Best Practices and Benchmarking
Nominations will be accepted from any ACDS member. To nominate a community program or project, ACDS members must use the electronic nomination form through the ACDS website at arkansascds.org/awards/form . ACDS membership information is available at arkansascds.org/membership/join .
Finalists for the awards will be chosen by the Awards Committee members and will receive a certificate of merit. Judging will be based on the following criteria:
Innovativeness
The program or project demonstrates innovative approaches to community development issues.
Transferability
The program or project shows potential use by other community development agencies or practitioners for similar opportunities or solutions. The program or project should be readily transferable to comparable situations in other communities.
Community Commitment and Leverage
The program or project makes it possible for others to achieve a greater impact by joining public/private participation or by intergovernmental or state/local involvement to leverage resources.
Measured Objectives
Results demonstrate a specific objective that the program or project was able to achieve. Measures of the program's value can include:
Secondary Benefits
Produces ancillary benefits to other community development activities in the area.
Program descriptions of the finalists will be posted for public viewing on the ACDS website. The award for the Best Community Development Program or Project will be chosen by ACDS members voting online at the ACDS website during September 2008.
