Our Great Region Awards

The Our Great Region Awards recognize outstanding organizations in the 13-county region working to make the region an even better place to live, work, and prosper. Submitted projects must advance one or more of the Our Great Region 2040 plan’s Big Ideas.

2019 Application Deadline Has Passed

The deadline to apply for 2019 was Wednesday, July 31, 2019.

Eligibility

Plans, programs, projects, or policies within the 13-county region in the past 3 years are eligible for submission. The 13-county region includes Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Liberty, Harris, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller, and Wharton counties.

Any organization may apply for the awards. Organizations may include cities, counties, other units of local governments, nonprofits, educational institutions, private businesses, and community groups. Organizations who have submitted or won an award in the past may apply this year.

Award Categories

Awards are self-nominating. If you have an eligible project, look through the list of award categories below to determine in which category or categories your project best fits. If your project fits well in more than one category, you may complete separate applications for each category, including the Excellence Category. While organizations can submit multiple projects, each project can only win 1 award per year.

The Connection Category

Honors a project that uses innovative partnerships to achieve the project’s goals.

The Diligence Category

Honors a completed project that used a creative and tenacious approach to overcome challenges to implementation.

The Reach Category

Honors a project that demonstrates exemplary public participation.

The Opportunity Category

Honors a project that helps overcome disparities in access to opportunity.

The Excellence Category

The highest honor bestowed in the Our Great Region Awards, recognizes projects that are best advancing the vision of the Our Great Region 2040 plan.

Project Evaluation

Eligible award applications will be evaluated by a panel of experts representing the diverse subject areas and geographies covered by the Our Great Region 2040 plan. The evaluation panel will use criteria based on the project narrative and the short answer responses. H-GAC reserves the right to change the category award selection.