Awards

• 2016 NAHMA’s Vanguard Award for a Small Property — Wabash Estates nahma.org (ext link)
• 2014 Detroit Free Press Top Workplace Award Winner TopWorkPlaces.com (ext link)
• 2013 Detroit Free Press Top Workplace Award Winner TopWorkPlaces.com (ext link)
• 2012 Detroit Free Press Top Workplace Award Winner TopWorkPlaces.com (ext link)
• 2012 Excellence in Community Development Award to Old Court Estates (HBAM Land Development Council)
• 2011 Detroit Free Press Top Workplace Award Winner—Small Business placed 8th TopWorkPlaces.com (ext link)
• 2011 Communities of Quality Corporate Partner Designation awarded to CSI Support
• 2011 ABC Excellence Award for Southway Builders awarded to Old Court Estates by the Baltimore Area Chapter of the Associated Builders Contractors Organization – Best New Project over $2.5 million
• 2010 Detroit Free Press Top Workplace Award Winner—Small Business placed 13th
• 2010 NAHMA’s Vanguard Award for a Small Property — Gratiot Woods
• 2009 Build Michigan Award—Gratiot Woods Co-op obriencc.com (ext link)
• 2004 ABC Excellence Award for Streuver Bros. Eccles & Rouse awarded to Randallstown Villa by the Baltimore Area Chapter of the Associated Builders & Contractors Organization – Best New Project over $5 million
• 1991 Excellence in Construction awarded to Maywood Manor

NAHC Development and Preservation Award

The Development and Preservation Award is given by the National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC) Development and Preservation Committee to recognize innovation, creativity, breakthroughs, leadership or business judgement that improves the likelihood and volume of successful housing cooperative development or the long term viability of existing housing cooperatives.

CSI Board of Directors members Billie J. Walker and Charlotte Lann receiving the NAHC Development and Preservation award for CSI Support & Development

2011 Communities of Quality Corporate Partner Designation awarded to CSI Support

Management companies that have at least 50 percent of their property portfolio accepted into the COQ National Recognition program qualify for the Communities of Quality® Corporate Partner Designation. The portfolio calculation can be based on either number of units or number of properties managed in the company’s affordable portfolio and is self-reported. This designation was created specifically to honor management companies that successfully maintain a significant portion of their properties to the high standards of the COQ National Recognition program. Earn a Significant Mark of Distinction for your Company! Earning this COQ corporate designation is truly an outstanding accomplishment, and it publicly declares that these companies are among the finest managers of affordable multifamily housing in the industry. This designation will add value to the brand of each participating management company and to the Communities of Quality program. We believe that corporate support for this designation will catapult the COQ program into a well-known nationally recognized program honoring excellence in the affordable housing industry.

NAHMA.org (ext link)

Cooperative Hall of Fame, Fred & Virginia Thornthwaite were inducted in 1994

Induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame is the highest honor that the cooperative community bestows on those men and women whose endeavors in the cause of the cooperative form of enterprise have been genuinely heroic. The Cooperative Hall of Fame provides recognition for persons contributing in especially significant ways to the enhancement of the cooperative idea and its broader acceptance in the United States, or to the substantial advancement of cooperative enterprise in any of its various forms.

Fred and Virginia Thornthwaite came of age during the Great Depression and World War II. From these experiences they concluded that existing economic systems had failed. Further study convinced them that a cooperative commonwealth could better meet basic human needs. Suiting action to philosophy, in 1942 Fred helped organize a dairy cooperative in the Downriver area of Detroit. After he and Virginia married, their house became the co-op’s rent-free office and home to a series of student co-op employees.

In 1960 the cooperative added optical services. A consumer-oriented approach made eye care affordable to those who could not afford it before. Over the next 30 years Co/op Optical Services opened 11 retail centers to serve Michigan families. Next the Thornthwaites turned their attention to affordable housing for the elderly. The first venture, Wyandotte Co-op, opened in 1965. A second was finished in 1971 after the couple pledged their own house as security for the construction company’s bond. The founders retired in 1981, but the housing co-op they nurtured continued to flourish. By the 1990′s, Cooperative Services, Inc., with 30 buildings in four states, had become a national model of excellence, and an inspiration to cooperators across the country. For nearly 5,000 residents, the Thornthwaites’ dream of the cooperative commonwealth was a reality.

Heroes.Coop (ext link)

NAHC’s Jerry Voorhis Award, Fred Thornthwaite 1984 (The first recipient of this award)

The NAHC (National Association of Housing Cooperatives) Board established the Voorhis Award in 1984 in memory of Jerry Voorhis, widely regarded as the principal founding father of NAHC. A man of impeccable integrity, he believed in and did his best to teach, apply and widen the use of basic cooperative principles. The award was conceived as an annual lifetime achievement award. Based on the following criteria:

• Long-term commitment to and consistent application of the basic Rochdale principles and practices as applied to housing cooperatives. The Rochdale principles were included in the original Bylaws, and continue to be an NAHC Bylaw feature.
• Steadfast commitment to quality of cooperatives, in recognition that partial or opportunistic application of Rochdale principles and standards and the acceptance of expedient compromises is a prescription for ultimate disaster.
• Significant candidate activity on a leadership level in both the theory and practice of cooperative housing, either or both on the national organization level and in their home community.
• Actual experience by candidate in living and working in a housing cooperative.