The 2016 George S. Dively Award for Corporate Leadership in Urban Development presented by Cleveland State University is being awarded to Third Federal Savings and Loan in recognition of their sustained commitment to the Broadway Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland and to the Broadway P-16 Initiative that places children at the center of neighborhood change.

The Dively Award recognizes the importance of corporate leadership in urban development projects. The late George S. Dively, chairman emeritus of the Harris Corporation, established the award in 1983. It is administered by CSU’s Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs.

The award will be presented to Third Federal June 29, as part of the Levin College Forum program, Growing a Healthy Community: What it Takes. Accepting on behalf of Third Federal will by Kurt Karakul, executive director of the Third Federal Foundation.

The Forum features a special keynote address by Alex Kotlowitz, award winning American journalist and author of the 2009 New York Times magazine cover story on Slavic Village that brought national attention to the devastation caused by the foreclosure crisis. In his keynote address, "The Things They Carry: Growing Up Poor in the World's Richest Nation -- and What It Takes to Build Community" he will share the stories of people growing up in poverty and will suggest what needs to be done to strengthen and re-fortify community.

Third Federal has been a consistent presence in the Slavic Village neighborhood, and invested millions of dollars in 1999 in a new corporate headquarters building on the site of its original bank, founded in 1938 on Broadway Avenue. In addition, the Third Federal Foundation created the P-16 educational program in partnership the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to improve educational attainment for city school children. Through this effort, the foundation has invested more than $1.5 million a year in cradle-to-career high quality educational and community programs for children from pre-birth to graduation from college. Together with its community partners, the Foundation has also been working on a comprehensive strategy to reduce and remove the barriers poverty creates and rebuild local communities.

The Dively Award provides a one-year paid internship for a Levin College student to assist a non-profit organization selected by Third Federal.

The forum is free and open to the public. For more information or to register please go to https://www.csuohio.edu/urban/forum/Levin-College-Forum-growing-health-community-Alex-Kotlowitz.

The Growing a Healthy Community forum series is a partnership between the Third Federal Foundation, Cleveland State University's Levin College of Urban Affairs and WVIZ/PBS ideastream.

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