POCATELLO RESIDENT RECEIVES NATIONAL LEADERSHIP AWARD
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation Awards Debra Clark the Dorothy Richardson Award
for Resident Leadership Development

WASHINGTON—Although she passed away this year, Debra Clark's many accomplishments continue to impact Pocatello, Idaho. In recognition of her contribution to a stronger community, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation awarded Clark this year's Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership Development. Clark's daughter received the award on her mother's behalf at Neighborhood Reinvestment's Training Institute held this week in San Francisco, California.

Winners of the Dorothy Richardson Award are individuals who have demonstrated exemplary achievement in developing local leadership. These individuals – like Richardson, the award's namesake – work to better their communities by getting involved and encouraging others to do the same.

"Individuals like Debra Clark are the real heroes of neighborhood improvement and community development. Resident leadership is the glue that binds important neighborhood revitalization work performed every day by the NeighborWorks^® network." said Ellen Lazar, executive director of Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation.

Clark is one of only nine winners this year, chosen from thousands of volunteers in more than 2,100 communities served by the national NeighborWorks^® network of nonprofit organizations. Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, founder of the NeighborWorks^® network, selected one winner from each of its nine districts across the nation. Clark was nominated by Neighborhood Housing Services of Pocatello, a NeighborWorks^® organization founded in 1993 to maintain a progressive alliance between and among residents, businesses and government to promote community pride through increase housing opportunities and neighborhood revitalization in targeted low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

Community involvement was the hallmark of Debra Clark's life, and developing new leadership was a valuable cornerstone. A founder of the Pocatello Neighborhood Housing Service (PNHS), her enthusiasm and passion for organizing and encouraging resident involvement benefited the community on nearly every level. Clark helped her community grow stronger, healthier and sustainable through neighborhood improvements. Her efforts gave PNHS widespread acceptance and credibility, and the organization has grown into an unparalleled partnership of residents, government and business. Through her unselfish mentoring, Clark developed another generation of contagious leadership that include five new committees with residents that she recruited and six resident-led associations in targeted neighborhoods.

The NeighborWorks^® network is comprised of more than 225 community-based organizations nationwide that create healthy communities through the work of thousands of residents, business people, government officials and other partners. In 2001, the network generated nearly $1.4 billion in total direct investment and helped more than 64,000 low to moderate-income families to purchase, improve or rent their homes. Led by neighborhood residents, the NeighborWorks^® network works to revitalize communities, reclaim abandoned and distressed properties, and promote home ownership.

Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation was created by Congress in 1978 to revitalize neighborhoods nationwide through the NeighborWorks^® network. The Corporation supports NeighborWorks^® organizations by providing training, technical assistance, and funding.

Winners of the Dorothy Richardson Award for Resident Leadership for 2002:

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