NNIP Announces Two New Network Awards to Celebrate Its 20th Anniversary

At the 20th Anniversary session at the NNIP Partners meeting in Cleveland, NNIP announced two new awards that will be given annually by the network. The G. Thomas Kingsley Impact Award recognizes an NNIP partner organization for their important contributions in using neighborhood data to improve local policy and practice to benefit low-income communities. The Network Steward of the Year Award recognizes an NNIP partner staff member who has demonstrated outstanding contributions to NNIP’s peer-learning network.

Background for the G. Thomas Kingsley Impact Award

In 1995, Tom Kingsley conducted the first rigorous review of the contributions of the founding organizations of NNIP and was instrumental in the decision to house the network at the Urban Institute. As founding director, he set the tone for the collaborative governance of the network, and helped inspire organizations across the country to commit to the mission of democratizing data. Beginning with the Stories publication in 1999 and more recently as lead author of Strengthening Communities with Neighborhood Data, he documented the impact that partners have had on local policy for two decades. Nationally, he has been a champion for the importance of neighborhoods and of the power of local data in community building and policymaking. He has mentored generations of urban researchers and local practitioners.  This award honors his legacy.
The impact can be related to actions of any local actor, including government, nonprofits or philanthropy and concern changes in administrative practices, operations, regulation, or legislation. 

Background for the Network Steward of the Year Award

The NNIP network is valued by its partners for its strength as a peer-learning network and its success at building a community of practice. The community of practice helps strengthen local capacity and advance local policy. A basic level of participation is expected from key staff members in partner organizations (attending partner meetings, responding to NNIPHQ inquiries and occasional phone calls from other partners, acknowledging NNIP in presentations, etc.). This award was created to honor those individuals who go above and beyond those minimum requirements to make contributions that advance the following goals: 1) strengthening the connectivity among partners to increase knowledge sharing within the network, and r 2) helping to raise the profile of the network by sharing lessons externally.