The Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident
Leadership is an honor bestowed annually in recognition of outstanding
contributions by dedicated community leaders. The awards are named
in honor of Dorothy Richardson of Pittsburgh, a pioneer in the
community-based development movement who was the driving force
behind the establishment of the first Neighborhood Housing Services
resident-led partnership, the forerunner of today's NeighborWorks®
network.
Richardson
and a small group of her neighbors in the 1960s banded together
in a fight to save their dying neighborhood in Pittsburgh's Central
North Side. They recruited partners in local government and the
business community. Together, they won their battle and doing
so set a precedent that changed the nation's approach to urban
redevelopment and spawned the new field of community-based development.
The recipients of Dorothy
Richardson Awards for Resident Leadership are chosen from NeighborWorks America's eight districts.
