What Home Means to Me Poster Contest Rules

The What Home Means to Me Poster Contest is a collaborative effort of NAHRO's local/state, regional, and national organizations.

National honorees are selected from region-level winning entries. NAHRO does not accept submissions from individuals, member agencies or state chapters to the national contest.

For specific information on this year's What Home Means to Me Poster contest, including state/regional deadlines, please contact your local/state NAHRO Chapter or NAHRO Regional Council.

Contest Rules

​Eligibility

Contest participation is open to all children in grades K-12 who are:

• Living in affordable housing that is assisted directly or supported under community development by an active NAHRO member, or
• Participants in affordable housing programs (i.e., public or Section 8-assisted housing CDBG, HOME, LIHTC) administered by an active NAHRO member.

Learn more about NAHRO membership.

Poster Requirements

Posters should reflect the theme of "What Home Means to Me."

Posters must be at least 8.5 x 11 paper size (letter size) and have a LANDSCAPE (HORIZONTAL) orientation.

Posters should not exceed the standard poster board size 22 inches by 28 inches.

Contestants may use marker, crayon, paint, or color pencil. Please consider that posters will need to be packaged, mailed and reproduced when choosing materials/mediums.

Entries must be created by only one person. Entries created by two or more people will not be accepted.

Please contact Joseph Macias jmacias@nahro.org if your housing agency needs help with supplies.

Age Categories

Local/state chapter and regional council contests accept submissions in the following age categories:

Elementary: K to 5th grade
Middle: 6th to 8th grade
High: 9th to 12th grade

One regional winner from each age category will be advance to the national competition.

How to Enter

Local Chapter/State Competitions:

Families interested in having their children enter the poster contest should contact their housing agency to determine if they are NAHRO members and participate in the poster contest.

NAHRO member agencies send entries to their local/state NAHRO Chapter. Local/state winners - typically one in each age category - advance to the Regional Council competition.

If your local/state NAHRO chapter does not hold a poster contest, contact your NAHRO Regional Council for more information about submitting entries directly to their poster contest.

Remember: NAHRO is not involved in the scheduling or management of local, state or regional contests. Each local/state chapter and regional council determines their own deadlines for poster contest entries and judging, typically in the Spring or Summer. NAHRO does not accept submissions to the national contest from anyone except the regional councils.

Regional Council Competitions

Each of the eight regional councils conducts their own poster contest and selects three winners - one from each age category - to advance to the national competition.

NAHRO regional councils must submit their three winning posters and the completed application packages to NAHRO by July 1, 2024. Please submit both by email to jmacias@nahro.org and by mail to:

NAHRO
Attn: Joseph Macias, Director of Development
630 Eye Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

National Competition

From the 24 regional submissions, a panel of 3rd-party judges will select twelve national honorees. National honorees will be announced during Housing America Month in October. All eight NAHRO regions will be represented amongst the 12 winners in the calendar.

All national winners receive cash prizes. The grand prize winner, whose art is featured on the calendar cover, will also receive a trip to NAHRO's Washington Conference (held the following spring) to meet our membership and their Congressional representatives.