The Neighborhood Summit brings hundreds of Cincinnatians together every year to celebrate those who truly make a difference in our communities. And every year the event spends a portion of the lunch hour honoring a select group of individuals and programs for their commitment to Cincinnati’s neighborhoods with special Neighborhood Summit Awards.

This year’s Neighborhood Summit Awards were presented in the following categories: Community Catalyst of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, and, following this year's theme (“Communicate”), the Communicating for Change Award. And new this year, we have added a category to recognize recent newcomers who are making a difference in our neighborhoods: Rookie of the Year.

Below is the full list of 2018 award winners.

Community Catalyst of the Year

An individual in a community organization whose energy and ideas led to a project or program that gets community members involved and excited, that produces good outcomes and results in increased neighborhood engagement

Winner: Anne Delano Steinert

Anne is receiving this award for her work on the “Finding Kenyon Barr” exhibit.  Through photographs taken by the City in 1959 for buildings slated for demolition, this traveling exhibit tells us what was lost when the urban renewal movement of the late 1950s razed the West End created the largest single displacement of any neighborhood in Cincinnati, over 97% of whom were African American and low income.  The images show a vibrant, thriving community of families and businesses.  Anne’s dedication to this project includes not just telling the story through these photos, but getting to know former residents and bringing them and their stories to the neighborhood through a series of panel discussions. Anne has set the stage for wider community dialogue about learning from the past as we make decisions about our neighborhoods, and the residents of those neighborhoods, today.

Lifetime Achievement Award

This award is given to an individual, inside or outside of a community organization, whose life and work has benefited all of Cincinnati, through creating inclusiveness, increasing the viability of community activities and organizations, and supporting neighborhoods and neighborhood leaders.

Winner: Sister Sally Duffy

Sr Sally Duffy has been making a difference through volunteering and activism in Cincinnati for decades.  She recently retired as President and Executive Director of SC Ministry Foundation for 13 years, where she worked to revitalize the Price Hills and make sure organizations had the necessary resources to invest in community development. But Sr Duffy is not finished: she is continuing to work for comprehensive immigration reform and the reduce childhood poverty in Cincinnati through the Childhood Poverty Collaborative, the United Way of Greater Cincinnati Public Policy Committee and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's Diverse by Design initiative.

Communicating for Change Award

This award goes to an outstanding project that demonstrates a community based communication strategy that exemplifies best practices in one or more of the following ways: content, outreach, engagement, dialogue, and collective action.

Winner: Cincy Stories (Shawn Braley & Chris Ashwell)

We have experienced in recent years (and throughout history) how story has the power to divide people across both visible and invisible lines. We also know that story has the power to bring people together, and that's exactly what the Cincy Stories project does. Cincy Stories brings people, connected by geography (a neighborhood) and connects them through experience. It provides opportunities for people that may not interact with one another, to come together (either physically or digitally) over shared experiences: of love and challenge; laughter and heartache; of experience of oneness and isolation. Cincy Stories has inspired the desire to start a little league team in Walnut Hills, and has led to difficult conversations around race in Price Hill. It's a simple concept, but one that's often overlooked.

Rookie of the Year

With this new award, we recognize that hard work and dedication to positive change in our neighborhoods isn’t just something undertaken by the old hats and hands.  This award is for the under-30 (ish) newcomers who are bringing passion, fierce commitment, and new forms of organizing and activism to make our city a better place for all

Winner: Cincinnati Peace Movement

Cincinnati Peace Movement is a grassroots approach to activism and action by and for the black community, founded by Asad Talib, Shalom Ikemba and Jet Plane—all under the age of 30 years old.  The mission of the movement is to improve the black community through service, mentoring and educational leadership. Their perhaps most noticeable efforts, are the bi-weekly Street Sweeps they put on in various inner-city neighborhoods, where they gather community and take to the streets — garbage bag in hand to pick up trash and litter – often partnering with local music group TRIIIBE. This past winter, Cincinnati Peace Movement and TRIIIBE collaborated on the Tribe Drive, a challenge for the people of Cincinnati to donate warm clothing, blankets and winter gear for those in need.  Collected items have been given out to families and folks in the same neighborhoods where the Street Sweeps have taken place. They are also collaborating with urban gardening and agricultural education for their communities – working especially with the youth. This project connects holistically to their Health in the Hood campaign, where they aim to improve the overall health within their neighborhoods by cultivating community and change through plant-based diets and healing water.

The City of Cincinnati congratulates the winners of the 2017 Neighborhood Summit Awards. These community champions have made major contributions in their own neighborhoods and worked to make Cincinnati a better place overall.