The awards

1. Creating healthy, active, and beautiful places

   Livability Award

   Recognizes an organization, individual, initiative or project with a long-standing commitment to healthy communities. Organizations that have created communities in which residents have daily access to art, nature, recreation and beauty.

   Types of projects:

   • Food access projects; change in food insecurity rate
   • Health/recreational projects
   • Community/police activities; decrease in criminal activity for neighborhood area
   • Cultural/creative place-making projects
   • Greenspace improvements
   • Connectivity improvements
   • Improvements of lighting, landscaping, street cleanliness, safety measures and maintenance
2. Fostering entrepreneurship and employment

   Opportunity Award

   Recognizes an outstanding organization, individual, initiative or project with a focus on building human capital, supporting existing businesses and redeveloping commercial property for viable new businesses, which requires the deployment of capital and technical support to bolster community entrepreneurs.

   Types of projects:

   • Small businesses assisted
   • Brownfields tested/remediated/redeveloped
   • Facades improved
   • Industrial and Commercial Square footage improved
   • Access to new capital for small business
   • Access to financial incentives
   • New businesses opened/attracted
   • Jobs created
   • Veteran Business Enterprise, Minority Business Enterprise or Women Business Enterprise businesses assisted, attracted or retained
   • Infrastructure improvements
   • Reduction in commercial vacancy rate
   • Increase in local employment rate
   • Increase in percent of residents employed in their own neighborhood
3. Reviving a growing and diverse population

   Vitality Award

   Recognizes an organization, individual, initiative or project that has helped to retain and attract residents to under-populated communities in a way that diversifies household income levels that leads to enhanced density and prosperity of these communities and the city.

   Types of projects:

   • Creation and investment in community plans that improve quality of life
   • New housing units produced or improved
   • Successfully managed a plan to attract housing and population to a community.
   • Increase in Population
   • Increase in Property values
4. Offering excellent lifelong learning opportunities

   Education Award

   Recognizes an organization, individual, initiative or project that has contributed significantly to the enhancement of the learning opportunities in communities. Communities that offer a rich array of educational opportunities to their residents from cradle to career to ensure that all children in these areas will have access to quality schools, and that adults will have opportunities to improve their employment skills.

   Types of projects:

   • Workforce development programs that train and educate
   • Assists community educational institutions in improving or expanding their facilities.
   • Provides support in expanding enrichment activities for community residents from pre-K to workforce.
   • Educational facilities improved
   • Educational programs improved
   • Increase in high school diploma attainment
   • Increase in area median income
   • Increase in number of quality early childhood care centers

Award ceremony

April 26, 2018 at 5pm
Indiana War Memorial
431 N Meridian St., Indianapolis, IN 46204 (directions)

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