Conference Awards Information

On the evening of December 7, 2006, the Housing Assistance Council will present two rural housing awards. An individual who has provided outstanding and enduring service on the national level will be honored with the Clay Cochran Award for Distinguished Service in Housing for the Rural Poor. A local leader in rural housing development will receive the Skip Jason Community Service Award. Award recipients will receive stipends.

Click here to learn more about previous award recipients.

National Service Award

The Clay Cochran Award for Distinguished Service in Housing for the Rural Poor honors individuals who have provided outstanding and enduring service, with national impact, for the betterment of housing conditions for the rural poor.

The award is named after Clay Cochran, a mentor and pioneer in the rural housing movement. Dr. Cochran's work in low-income rural housing goes back to the 1930s and 1940s. He founded the Rural Housing Alliance and Rural America. Dr. Cochran passed away in 1982.

Previous winners of this award include Clay Cochran, Obediah Baker, Peter Carey, Gordon Cavanaugh, Art Collings, Eileen Fitzgerald, Elizabeth Herring, Robert Rapoza, Arnold Sternberg, Cushing Dolbeare and three members of Congress: Eva Clayton, Stan Lundine and Bennie Thompson.

Criteria for Competition

Significant achievements and/or contributions in any or all of the following areas:

• Leadership in national housing organizations
• Substantial impact on national housing legislation
• Improving or maintaining funding for rural housing programs that serve the poor
• Development of new housing programs or special adaptations to existing programs, which enhance service to the rural poor
• Improving advocacy and/or enhancing coalition building that leads to improved rural housing opportunities
• Overall enduring service with a national impact towards improving conditions of the ill-housed rural poor

Community Service Award

The Skip Jason Community Service Award acknowledges people whose efforts have improved the housing conditions of the rural poor in their communities. The award acknowledges people who work "in the trenches" and usually go unrecognized outside their communities.

The award is named after Robert "Skip" Jason, a long-time housing activist with considerable community experience, who died in 1982 while employed as HAC's Government Services Director.

Prior recipients include David Arizmendi, Clanton Beamon, Guillermo Castaneda, Cora Esquibel, Rose Garcia, Arturo C. Gonzales, Dana M. Jones, Barbara Lamphere, Jerome Little, Steve Mainster, Rito Medina, Madeline Miller, Polly Nichol, John "Jack" Rivel, Jr., Ted Smith, Lauretta Brice Stephens, Bessie Swan, Mario Villanueva, Jim Wilcox, Dwayne Yost, and John Zippert.

Criteria for Competition

Significant achievements and/or contributions in any or all of the following areas:

• Improving the housing conditions of rural poor communities
• Unrecognized efforts that extend outside nominee’s community
• Community achievement in community development and/or housing
• Increasing the number of housing units produced
• Producing innovative or difficult housing
• Advocating for affordable housing
• Any other specific and significant community contribution in the field of low-income rural housing

Nominations Submissions

All Nomination Submissions Must Include:

• Nominee's name, title, organization, address, telephone/fax number, and e-mail address
• Nominee's years of service in rural housing
• Nominator's name, title, organization, address, telephone/fax number, and e-mail address
• A one- to two-page narrative stating why the person being nominated deserves the specified award. The narrative should also specifically identify accomplishments and/or contributions for which the nominee should be recognized. Please format the narrative according to the criteria for competition outlined under the particular award.

Additional materials (newspaper clippings, letters of support, photographs, nominees' resume, etc.) may be submitted in support of the narrative. Please limit additional information to no more than six items.

Nominations Process

• May be submitted by anyone.
• Must be submitted by mail. E-mails and faxes cannot be accepted.
• Must be postmarked by September 15, 2006.
• Should be mailed to:

  Housing Assistance Council
  2006 Awards Committee
  Attn: Lilla Sutton, Executive Coordinator
  1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Suite 606
  Washington , DC 20005

Selection Process

• A committee of HAC board members and staff will review nominations and make recommendations to the full Board of Directors
• HAC's Board of Directors will review committee recommendations and select recipients
• Recipients will be notified, in advance, by phone and presented with awards at the National Rural Housing Conference 2006 to be held on December 6-8, 2006 in Washington, D.C. Recipients will also receive stipends and a waiver of conference registration fees.

~For further information, please contact Lilla Sutton by phone at 202-842-8600, ext. 113 or by e-mail at lilla@ruralhome.org.