Prevention Awards of Excellence

Submit a Nomination

About the Awards

Each year, professionals, community members, youth, and Coalitions are recognized for their exemplary contributions to substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, mental health promotion and the health of their communities.

The goals of the Washington State Prevention Awards of Excellence are to:

• Identify superior substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, suicide prevention, violence prevention and mental health promotion programs with exceptional outcomes that can be adopted or adapted by others,
• Recognize outstanding community partners, including youth engaged in prevention efforts as well as honoring Tribal and Urban Indian work in prevention and,
• Focus statewide attention on exceptional prevention work.

Nomination Process

Nominations can be submitted by completing the online Awards Nomination Survey. Nominators are to submit one nomination per Awards Nomination Survey. In your nomination submission, please include all relevant details as the review committee will only be reviewing the information that you provide to assess the nominee's sustainability for an award. Nominations with missing or otherwise incomplete information may not be able to be scored properly.

Nomination Timeline

Nominations are available annually in Spring. After the close of the nomination survey, nominations are reviewed by a committee of Health Care Authority (HCA) staff, in addition to community volunteers using a formal evaluation process. Award recipients are selected and announced in the Fall and are often recognized at the annual Washington State Prevention Summit.

2026 Prevention Awards of Excellence Timeline

Prevention Awards of Excellence Categories and Criteria

Tribal and urban Indian prevention efforts

Purpose: To recognize Tribal and urban Indian program leaders, groups, organizations, businesses, or agencies that deliver prevention services within their communities. 

• Nominees can be a Tribal or urban Indian leader, group, youth council, or Tribal prevention organization (task force, coalition, workgroup).
• Nominees must be a strong prevention leader, group, organization, business, or agency from a Tribal or urban Indian community.
• Nominators should demonstrate the nominee’s leadership, successful program implementation or support, involvement in prevention efforts, and commitment to substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, suicide prevention, violence prevention, or mental health promotion.

Youth leader

Purpose: To recognize school age youth in grades 6^th – 12^th.

• Nominees can be an individual, group, or club.
• To be considered for this award, nominators should demonstrate that nominees have regularly participated in community and/or school prevention activities for a minimum of one year and have demonstrated peer leadership, teamwork, and volunteerism.

Young adult leader

Purpose: To recognize young adults working in substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, suicide prevention, or mental health promotion.

• Nominees can be an individual, group, or club.
• To be considered for this award, nominators should demonstrate that nominees have regularly participated in community and/or school prevention activities for a minimum of one year and have demonstrated peer leadership, teamwork, and volunteerism.

Prevention professional, lifetime achievement, and/or community prevention supporter

Purpose: To recognize individuals associated with an organization, business, or agency, or individuals demonstrating active support of prevention activities or programs.

• This category is specifically for an individual and includes the lifetime achievement award.
• To be considered for this award, nominees must be strong prevention leaders or supporters in their community.  Nominators should demonstrate the nominee’s leadership, effective service delivery, community involvement in prevention efforts, and their commitment to substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, suicide prevention, violence prevention, or mental health promotion.
• The lifetime achievement nominee must have contributed to Prevention for at least 10 years and are planning to leave Prevention to engage in retirement or other career pursuits.

Community coalition and/or community prevention group

Purpose: To recognize groups providing excellent prevention programs to a community.

• Nominees can be a community-based organization (CBO), community prevention and wellness initiative site (CPWI), drug-free community (DFC), or another group not affiliated with the Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (DBHR).
• To be considered for this award, nominators should demonstrate the nominee’s leadership in the community or Tribe and extent of partnerships, effective service delivery, impact on the community or Tribe, and their ongoing commitment to prevention.

Contributions to prevention by an organization, business, or agency

Purpose: To recognize entities in the community that assist or support coalition or group prevention activities.

• To be considered for this award, nominators should demonstrate the nominee’s leadership, partnership, community involvement and any major and sustainable contribution to prevention.
• Examples: library regularly donating space, business regularly providing media support.

Early-career prevention professional

Purpose: To recognize an undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, graduate, research associate, or post-doctoral prevention professional in substance use disorder prevention, problem gambling prevention, suicide prevention, violence prevention, or mental health promotion who have made intellectual contributions to the generation or dissemination of scientific evidence regarding effective prevention programs and practices.

• This category is specifically for an individual.
• To be considered for this award, nominators should demonstrate that nominees have regularly participated in scholarly prevention activities and professional development (such as program evaluation, evidence dissemination, or scholarly outreach) for a minimum of one year and have demonstrated leadership in translating their scholarly contributions into real-world practice.