FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 28, 2022

Contact: Rita O’Donohue | (317) 222-1221 x405 | rodonohue@prosperityindiana.org

Announcing Prosperity Indiana’s 2022 Award Winners!

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Prosperity Indiana announced the winners of its annual leadership and program awards at the 2022 Prosperity Indiana Summit on February 17. The Summit Awards Ceremony was an occasion to celebrate the leaders and innovators in the community economic development field. Winners were nominated by their peers and chosen by a judging committee, based on criteria established for each award.

“Such critical work is being done by Prosperity Indiana members and partner organizations across the state to strengthen our communities. As a result, the list of nominees for this year's Prosperity Indiana awards was extremely impressive," said Jessica Love, Executive Director for Prosperity Indiana. "It is an absolute honor to lift up the work of the four 2022 Prosperity Indiana Award recipients. The communities served by the winners, who are based in Bartholomew, Lake, Marion, and Miami Counties, are no doubt forever changed by the work of these individuals and programs.”

Award winners include Janine Betsey, Eric A. Frey, II, Anna Schoon, and Prevent Pricks with ShipHappens.

The Michael Carroll Community Economic Development Leadership Award, sponsored by First Financial Bank and co-presented with the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, distinguishes an individual who has exhibited exceptional advocacy to further support the community economic development industry. 

Presented to: Janine Betsey, Gene B. Glick Company

Described as a visionary leader who has convened multidimensional partnerships and led redevelopment efforts, Janine Betsey has been a stalwart leader in serving disadvantaged communities, developing dynamic affordable housing projects, and implementing economic development initiatives that have transformed neighborhoods and improved residents’ quality of life. 

Known for inspiring female developers and developers of color, her motto that “There is no crying in community development” has pushed others in the field to navigate difficult projects and other career challenges to improve their trajectory going forward. 

In her new role as the Director of Tax Credit Operations for Gene B. Glick Company, Betsey is working for an organization with thousands of affordable housing units in areas of high opportunity, like those her own family sought out for her as a child. In her new role managing Glick’s affordable housing efforts, she has a key opportunity to preserve and enhance these units, so that they may serve generations to come.

Other Michael Carroll Community Economic Development Leadership Award nominees include:

• Kyle Bach, The Annex Group

• Stephen Camilleri, Center for the Homeless

• Moira Carlstedt, Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership

• Robin Hilber, City of Columbus - Department of Community Development

• Denise Koebcke, The Caring Place

• Marco J. Mariani, South Bend Heritage Foundation

• Matt Meyers, Bartholomew County Sheriff

• Richard Proctor III, Indy Gateway

The John Niederman Rural Development Leadership Award, sponsored by Fifth Third Bank, is designed to celebrate outstanding leaders in the field of rural community economic development.

Presented to: Eric A. Frey, II, Southern Indiana Housing and Community Development Corporation

With more than 28 years of experience in the acquisition and administration of federal, state, and private grant programs in rural communities, Eric Frey knows the ins and outs of Community Development Block Grant program administration and how to lead industrial and economic development, housing rehabilitation, and capital improvements projects, and commercial, industrial and microenterprise lending programs.

Described as someone who is always finding creative ways to reach the end goal, Frey is said to have helping people at the heart of his leadership. And while he tries to stay in the shadows, as executive director of Southern Indiana Housing and Community Development Corporation and Administrative Resources association in Columbus, Frey is known for orchestrating the right people at the right time to reach the goal at hand.

Other Rural Development Leadership Award nominees include:

• Kyle Bach, The Annex Group

• Bo Beaulieu, Purdue University

• G. Dean Byers, Habitat for Humanity of Marshall County

• Anna Schoon, Northwest Indiana Community Action

The Robert O. Zdenek Staff Member of the Year Award, sponsored by Brightpoint, recognizes the outstanding professional leadership and commitment of a staff person working for a community economic development organization.

Presented to: Anna Schoon, Northwest Indiana Community Action

Anna Schoon is an expert in Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, a Certified Community Action Professional, a Results Oriented Management and Accountability trainer, a leader of poverty simulations, creator and organizer for the Reimagine Conference focused on ACEs, and the lead staff person for a variety of programs at the Northwest Indiana Community Action agency, or NWICA. Through her role as VP of Planning & Business Development, she is known for actively planning, collaborating, and developing opportunities across NWICA’s multi-county service territory to better lives for those in the most populated and most rural areas within Indiana.

Schoon has spent more than 20 years “working with low-income and socially diverse populations to help them develop economic stability via opportunities for housing and employment. And she weaves advocacy in all of her actions, and it is her actions that make the impact,” according to her nomination.

Other Staff Member of the Year nominees include:

• Erin Emerson, Perry County Development Corporation

• Rob Evans, Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership

• Nicholas Hunot, Renew Indianapolis

• Pablo Malavenda, Lafayette Urban Ministry

• Natalie Powell, Hoosier Uplands EDC

• Aaron Roberts, Ivy Tech-Indianapolis/Noblesville

The Key Award for Supportive Services Program of the Year, sponsored by Merchants Bank of Indiana, honors excellence and innovation in a service-oriented (non-construction) community development initiative. 

Presented to: Prevent Pricks with ShipHappens

A volunteer-led, community-based initiative, the winning program increases health and safety while reducing stigma and discrimination. It raises public awareness and acceptance of evidence-based harm reduction principles, policies, and programs among public health and health care systems, local government, and the general public. 

Prevent Pricks is designed to be equitable and inclusive of all syringe-using residents: meaning people with chronic diseases, those in need of hormone or vitamin deficiency injections, and people who use drugs. 

Since launching the syringe disposal pilot program in October 2020, the program has eliminated accidental needle pricks of City and County Street Department workers in Miami County and Peru, Indiana, saving the $500-$4000 it costs to treat a single needlestick injury, and the program has seen a 29 percent decrease in improper syringe disposal calls to the Peru Police Department.

Other Key Award nominees include:

• Embedded Police Social Worker Program with the Bloomington Police Department

• Eviction Prevention Program with the Homeless Coalition of Southern Indiana

• Fort Wayne Cares-Emergency Rental Assistance Program with the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana Legal Services, Just Neighbors, Brightpoint, Catholic Charities, and Lutheran Social Services

• Permanent Supportive Housing with Horizon House

###

About Prosperity Indiana

The Indiana Association for Community Economic Development d/b/a Prosperity Indiana builds a better future for our communities by providing advocacy, leveraging resources, and engaging an empowered network of members to create inclusive opportunities that build assets and improve lives. Since its founding in 1986, Prosperity Indiana’s network has grown to nearly 200 organizations, representing thousands of practitioners statewide from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.