City of Dallas to be honored by National Community Development Association

The City of Dallas will receive the 2016 Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award from the National Community Development Association (NCDA) for its collaborative efforts with the Citizens Development Center (CDC). The award will be presented during the NCDA’s Winter Conference Friday Jan. 22 in Washington.

Audrey Nelson was the first Deputy Executive Secretary of NCDA.  She grew up in an inner city Chicago neighborhood which was a target area for the local Model Cities Program.  Her intense commitment to her neighborhood, her local program efforts, and her drive to serve low-income people was cut short by death from cancer at the age of 29.  NCDA is proud to honor the memory of Audrey through these awards.

The City of Dallas Housing/Community Services Department and CDC have been in partnership since 2009.

The City provides Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to address critical and unmet community needs including those for housing, public facilities, infrastructure, economic development, public services, and more. The City has provided the CDC with funds for training and employment services for adults with disabilities and facility improvements.

In 1987, NCDA established the Audrey Nelson Community Development Achievement Award to recognize exemplary uses of the CDBG Program and the partnerships between local governments and non-profit organizations to assist low- and moderate-income persons. The award has been expanded in recent years to include projects funded with the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program, Neighborhood Stabilization Program, and other funding sources.