AWARDS 2004

2004 Metropolitan Business League Vision of Excellence Award. RRHA was awarded the Metropolitan Business Leagues' (MBL) 2004 Vision of Excellence award which recognizes and individual and/or business that understands, initiates and promotes economic diversity and supports minority business development. This is done through consistently contributing an organization; time, money or encouragement to minority business owners. MBL is a not-for-profit business development organization based in Richmond, Virginia, that focuses on minority business development and advancement.

AWARDS 2003

RRHA wins NAHRO Award of Excellence for VENDOR FAIRS PROGRAM. Second national Award of Excellence in two years.

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority (RRHA) has won a 2003 Award of Excellence from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for its Vendor Fairs Program. This is the second year in a row that RRHA has won this outstanding honor. The national award honors superior assisted housing and community development programs.

Last year, the Authority won for its innovative Hope for Healthcare Program, a six-week program that trains Richmond's public housing residents for careers in nursing.

The RRHA Vendor Fairs Program was developed to a better understanding in the community of the numerous opportunities to do business with the RRHA, especially women and minority owned, and create a place in which vendors and buyers cold come together to exchange information, and to improve their procurement process. Using a "Fair" format, the RRHA has a variety of business booths, breakout sessions, and a detailed pamphlet that raises awareness and strengthens Richmond-based businesses that might not have been vied for contracts before.

The RRHA has also won an Award of Merits from NAHRO for the Family Self-Sufficiency Video - Are you ready to change your life, The RRHA Spirit - a newsletter for residents, the community job fairs presented by the RRHA University, and the RRHA Customer Service Program - Reaching for the S.T.A.R.S.

NAHRO, established in 1933, is a membership organization of housing and community development agencies and professionals throughout the United States whose mission is to create affordable housing and safe, viable communities that enhance the quality of life for all Americans, especially those of low-and moderate-income. NAHRO's membership administers more than 3 million housing units for 7.6 million people.

AWARDS 2002

RRHA Wins National NAHRO Awards - HOPE FOR HEALTHCARE PROGRAM tapped for Award of Excellence

RRHA has been awarded a national award honoring superior assisted housing and community development programs that help low-and moderate-income people. RRHA was recognized for its HOPE FOR HEALTHCARE certified nurse aid training program with an Award of Excellence in the Program Innovation category.

The 2002 Award of Excellence was presented by the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO).

The Authority also won six Awards of Merit from NAHRO for the following programs:

AWARDS 2001

In 2001, RRHA and partner EAF Productions won a Medallion Award at the 54th Annual Virginia Public Relations Awards in the category of audio/visual communications for Bringing the RRHA HOPE VI Self-Sufficiency Training Program to Life. The Virginia Public Relations Awards were presented by the Richmond Public Relations Association (RPRA), a chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), and the Medallion Award is the highest honor bestowed there.

Bringing RRHA's HOPE VI Self-Sufficiency Training Program to Life described RRHA's television and radio public service announcements (PSAs) profiling several Blackwell residents who are transforming their lives through the HOPE VI Self-Sufficiency Training Program. For several months preceding the awards, the PSAs were aired on Richmond radio stations and on Channel 12, Richmond television's NBC affiliate.

This is the second year that RRHA's efforts have been recognized by RPRA/PRSA. Last year RRHA was awarded the Medallion Award for an outstanding community relations program - the Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program.

In 2001, RRHA also won an Award of Merit from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for RRHA's HOPE VI Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program 2000, a six-week program through which a group of nine-to-15-year-olds from Richmond's Blackwell neighborhood designed a new community park for Blackwell, which may be the first park in Richmond designed by children. The Award of Merit recognizes outstanding work. HUD presented the award to the youth of Blackwell.

The program was administered by RRHA and several partners -- the City of Richmond's Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the Blackwell Tenant Council and the Blackwell Community Civic Association.

The HOPE VI Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program 2000 was part of RRHA's HOPE VI Revitalization Program, which is transforming Blackwell, an area of distressed public housing units, into a traditional, urban, mixed-income neighborhood complete with new housing, a new elementary school and a new community center. The program is also providing training programs and services for Blackwell public housing residents. Thanks to the creativity of the children of the summer arts program, in the field that lies between Maury Street and Dinwiddie Avenue, Blackwell will offer its residents a refurbished park, complete with gazebos and a community vegetable garden.

During the first week of the arts program, the children photographed the site of the future park and toured and photographed parks in other areas of the city. During the next five weeks, experts such as landscape architects, artists, ecologists, engineers and park designers taught the children the fundamentals of urban planning, horticulture, landscape design and water control. Throughout the program's six weeks, the children worked under the guidance of VCU art education students.

The children used their newly acquired knowledge - and their own youthful perspective -- to build a 6-by10-foot topographical scale model of the park they designed. The model reveals the children's detailed plan for the placement paths, gardens, playgrounds, trees and water features.

The children's model is now being used by city planners to design Blackwell's new park. The model has also been displayed in locations throughout the community and presented to various planning agencies.

Other awards and accolades in 2001: The Housing Research Foundation has listed an RRHA publication, The HOPE VI Newsletter, as a Best Practice for Community and Supportive Services and has posted issues of the publication on the organization's Web site (www.housingresearch.org).

AWARDS 2000

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) awarded RRHA Awards of Excellence for creating the Idlewood, an affordable, energy-efficient, two-story, three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot house that guarantees a two-year monthly heating /cooling cost of less than $30. Good for the environment, houses like the Idlewood also entitle their owners to Energy Efficient Mortgages.

Rehabilitating the One East Broad Street Building, a turn-of-the-century building that once housed Richmond's first Woolworth's, and transforming it into One East Broad Street Apartments. Using public/private partnerships to finance the project, RRHA and developer Pinnacle Construction of Virginia transformed the downtown Richmond building into a residence of 19 loft-style apartments complete with expansive arched windows and wood floors. These attractive, affordable apartments contribute to the re-population of the city of Richmond. The rehabilitated building also offers 7,000 square feet of refurbished first-floor commercial space.

The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) also awarded RRHA Awards of Merit for:

- In Focus, RRHA's quarterly newsletter for employees;

- The RRHA Mentoring Program, which introduced 30 youths who live in public housing to adult role models;

- The HOPE VI Newsletter, RRHA's quarterly publication for communicating the progress of a community undergoing revitalization through the HOPE VI Revitalization Program;

- The 1999 Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program, through which 24 Blackwell children created paintings and collages showing the affects of revitalization through the HOPE VI Revitalization Program on their community; and

- A Child's Vision: The HOPE VI Commemorative Calendar, a calendar incorporating the art children created in the Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program.

Also in 2000, RRHA was awarded:

- The Richmond Public Relations Association's (RPRA's) Medallion Award for the 1999 Blackwell Children's Summer Arts Program, through which more than 20 children from Blackwell spent the summer of 1999 creating art depicting Blackwell in 2005, when the community has been completely revitalized through the HOPE VI Revitalization Program.

- An award from the Southeastern Regional Conference of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (SERC-NAHRO) for creating the Idlewood, an affordable, energy-efficient, two-story, three-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot house that guarantees a two-year monthly heating /cooling cost of less than $30. Good for the environment, houses like the Idlewood also entitle their owners to Energy Efficient Mortgages.

In 1999, RRHA was awarded:

- The Award of Merit of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for the authority's conversion of the historic Nathaniel Bacon School (a building on the National Historic Register) to the Bacon Retirement Community, a building of 59 well appointed, affordable housing units for the elderly.