The Core Values Awards showcase how nominees and winners reflect best practices in public participation and provides an update on the state of the practice. 

What are the IAP2 Core Values Awards?

Each year, IAP2 Affiliates around the world celebrate excellence in the profession through the IAP2 Core Values Awards. The awards go to projects and organizations which best demonstrate IAP2's Core Values and help to raise the bar in the field of public engagement by sharing best practices and inspiring the P2 community to learn from one another. As a friendly competition, the Core Values Awards encourage new approaches and innovative uses of existing ones.

Each year winners of the "national" awards (see below) go on to compete against winners from other IAP2 affiliates from around the world.

Public participation is based on the belief that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision - making process.

National Awards

• Project of the Year Award

• Organization of the Year Award
• Research Project of the Year Award

Project Awards

• General Project Award – This award will be given to the project that best reflects excellence in the tools, techniques and efforts in public participation and demonstrates the use of all the Core Values within a defined project.
  
  

• Creativity and Innovation Award – This award will be given to the project that best demonstrates innovative, creative use of techniques and tools to effectively and meaningfully engage participants in a project. Judges will look for a robust project or process that stands out because it is unique, with a series of innovations that can serve as a model for others.
  
  
• Respect for Diversity, Inclusion and Culture Award – This award will be given to the project that best demonstrates one or more of the following:
  — Effective engagement of marginalized, vulnerable and “hard to reach” populations
  — A multicultural, linguistically diverse and/or bilingual process that reflect a depth and diversity of participants
  — Size, scope and scale of project that incorporates areas that are remote, rural or vast
  — Culturally appropriate and inclusive processes with Indigenous people and/or communities
  — Projects that resulted in positive social outcomes with limited budget and/or resources in such a project

The National Award for Overall Project of the Year is chosen from the winners of these Project Awards.

Application Process

1. Complete your application for the 2026 IAP2 Core Values Awards 

All submissions must use the process outlined in the 2026 Core Values Awards Entry Kit (link will be updated on April 8, 2026). 

Submissions for Core Values Award in a Project Category (General Project Award, Creativity and Innovation Project Award, or Respect for Diversity, Inclusion and Culture Project Award) must also include a case study. Please refer to the 2026 Core Values Case Study Template (link will be updated on April 8, 2026) for more information.

2. Pay your CVA Application Fee

3. Email completed application to info@iap2usa.org

4. Deadline for all submissions - June 1, 2026 at 11:59 MT

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: info@iap2usa.org sublect line - "Core Values Awards Question"

April 8:  Nominations Open

June 1:  Submission Deadline

June 29: Award recipients notified

October 1-3: 2026 North American Conference and Core Values Awards celebration in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Learn from the best of the best!
IAP2 USA Core Values Awards Winners

Core Values Awards Around the World!
Read about winners from other countries, from past years, in the IAP2 Federation Showcase!

Marty Rozelle & Lewis Michaelson on the Core Values Awards