Recognition with its feet on the ground.
The Steady Ground Awards are a national honor for behavioral health and addiction treatment organizations — open to programs of any size, judged by named experts against a published rubric, and never decided by who paid.
Nominations open December 1, 2026. First annual cycle. Published rubric, named judges, a 75-point threshold to win, and honorees use their badge at no extra cost — no licensing fee, ever.
Why this award exists
Roughly 21,000 treatment facilities in the United States do the slow, unglamorous work of helping people find steady ground. Almost none of them can enter an award judged on the work itself.
The recognition that exists today mostly isn't for them. The big rankings can't be entered — and charge for the logo after the fact. The association honors go to individuals or a single member each year. The paid programs judge vendors and marketing campaigns, not care.
Steady Ground is the opening in between: an open, national, program-level award where a six-bed rural recovery house competes on the same rubric as a multi-state system, and where the scoring is published before the first entry arrives.
Eight categories for the whole field
Six organizational categories, one for a leader, and one — free to enter — for the peer support workforce the field runs on.
Treatment Innovation
A program, protocol, or model that measurably improved outcomes — and that others could adopt.
from $199Community Impact
Work that changed what care looks like beyond the organization's own walls.
from $199Workplace Culture
Retention, supervision, and support for the clinicians and staff doing the hardest shifts.
from $199Family & Alumni Engagement
Programs that keep families in the loop and alumni in the fold, long after discharge.
from $199Patient Voice
Organizations that gather client feedback and can show what changed because of it.
from $199Access & Equity
Lowering the barriers — payer, language, geography, stigma — between people and care.
from $199Leader of the Year
An executive or clinical leader whose results, not title, make the case.
from $199Peer Support Champion
For peer specialists and recovery coaches. Nominated by anyone, at no cost.
Free to enterHow winners are chosen
The rubric is published before nominations open. Winning takes 75 of 100 points — if no entry in a category clears the bar, that category has no winner that year.
The rubric (draft, published in full December 1)
Entries describe programs and results. They never include patient-identifying information, and every entrant's license or accreditation status is verified before judging.
The panel
Every entry is screened for eligibility and scored against the published rubric with AI assistance — the same reading, in full, for the first entry and the last. Final decisions rest with the named panel, and judges with any relationship to an entrant recuse.
The 2027 cycle
Nominate
Dec 1 – Feb 16Anyone can nominate. Self-nominations welcome. Early-bird pricing ends January 15.
Review
Feb 17 – Mar 1Eligibility and license verification on every entry before a judge reads a word.
Judge
March 2 – 16Rubric scoring, panel deliberation, conflict-of-interest recusals on record.
Honor
March 23, 2027Honorees announced the week before the spring conference season.
Entry fees, stated plainly
| Entry | Fee |
|---|---|
| Early-bird (through January 15) | $199 |
| Standard (January 16 – February 16) | $299 |
| Nonprofit and safety-net providers | $199 at any time |
| Agencies — 3 to 5 entries | $249 each |
| Agencies — 6 or more entries | $225 each |
| Peer Support Champion | Free |
The fee covers verification, judging, and the honoree kit — digital badge, certificate, and announcement materials. There is nothing extra to buy if you win.
Fair questions, straight answers
This industry has seen too many plaques for sale. Here is exactly how this one works.
Is this pay-to-win?
No. The fee funds verification and judging; it buys a fair reading, not a result. Scores come from the published rubric, winning requires 75 of 100 points, and a category with no qualifying entry has no winner — fees and all.
Who profits from referrals or sponsorships?
No one. We do not accept referral or lead-generation sponsors of any kind, consistent with the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act. Sponsors, when we take them, underwrite categories — they never see entries or touch scores.
Can winners call themselves "the best"?
No, and neither do we. Badges and announcements say what is true: a named program won a named category in a named year, judged on a published rubric. No "best," no "#1," no superlatives we can't stand behind.
What happens to the information in an entry?
Entries must contain no patient-identifying information — we reject any that do. Program descriptions are read by reviewers and judges only; nothing is published without the honoree's say-so.
For agencies
You already make the case for your clients' work. Enter three or more and the per-entry fee drops — and every entry gets the same verification, the same rubric, and the same straight answer.
Know a program that holds people up?
Nominations for the first annual Steady Ground Awards open December 1, 2026. Anyone can nominate — a colleague, a board member, a family, or the program itself.