Project receives Secretary's Award for Community Foundations
Posted by:
John Duda
The work of the Cleveland Foundation as a leader of the groundbreaking Evergreen Cooperatives initiative was recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The new HUD Secretary's Award for Community Foundations, created in partnership with the Council on Foundations, was created to honor the important work being done across the country as foundations and the public sector find innovative strategies to build a more inclusive and sustainable society.
In the inaugural award round, an exemplary project from each HUD region was selected. According to Vikki Spruill, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, "The 10 awardees, and all our community foundation members, represent lives improved, neighborhoods saved, jobs created, people trained, kids educated, and homes built."
The Evergreen Cooperatives project, which combines place-based economic development and job creation with a focus on cooperative community wealth building, was the awardee for HUD's Region V. "Launched in 2008, the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative is working to create living wage jobs in six low-income neighborhoods in Greater University Circle to cause an economic breakthrough in Cleveland," said Antonio R. Riley, HUD's Midwest Regional Administrator. "The Cleveland Foundation is creating lasting and positive change."
For more information about the award, and the full list of recipients, with details of their work, visit HUD's overview page.