Annual Awards
The following awards are presented annually at the NHADACA Annual Meeting.
List of Services
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Peer Recovery Support Worker of the Year Award
The Peer Recovery Support Worker of the Year award, presented for the first time by NHADACA in 2026, recognizes an individual who exemplifies the power and impact of lived experience in supporting recovery. This award honors a peer who demonstrates compassion, authenticity, and a deep commitment to walking alongside others on their recovery journey. Through advocacy, connection, and person-centered support, they help reduce stigma, build hope, and strengthen pathways to recovery. Their work reflects the core values of peer support and highlights the essential role peers play in transforming lives and advancing recovery across New Hampshir
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Outstanding Team of the Year Award
The Outstanding Team of the Year Award celebrates exceptional contributions and achievements by recognizing an organization or team that advances substance use prevention, treatment, or recovery in New Hampshire. This creative and dedicated team motivates change and demonstrates excellence in collaboration, innovation, and commitment to supporting individuals and communities. This award is intended to honor a team that contributes toward New Hampshire’s substance use continuum of care system in inspiring, meaningful, and impactful ways.
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Community Hero Award
A true hero is an ordinary person who, guided by empathy and moral conviction, acts with selflessness, courage, and a willingness to sacrifice, sometimes at their own personal risk, to help others. This award honors individuals whose heroic actions have made a significant impact on the community.
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Emerging Leader in Healing & Recovery Award
This award recognizes a rising professional who demonstrates exceptional promise, leadership, and dedication in the fields of substance use and/or mental health. The Emerging Leader in Healing & Recovery Award honors individuals who are within the first 10 years in their careers yet have already made meaningful contributions to their clients, communities, or the profession at large.
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Counselor of the Year AwardList Item 1
The Counselor of the Year is employed as an addiction counseling professional for not less than 3 years. This person works with clients/patients for a sustained period with individual or group contact to foster recovery from addictive disorders. This person demonstrates to the satisfaction of their peers, full compliance and support of the NAADAC Code of Ethics. Additionally, the following areas of competence and skill should be used to identify candidates for this award. The recipient demonstrates outstanding performance in some or all of the following competence areas: assessment, treatment planning, case management, communications, administrative skills, individual/group/family counseling, referral, professional relationships and professional integrity.
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Thomas McTague Lifetime Achievement AwardList Item 2
Thomas McTague died in 1996 and the award was created in his honor in 1998. Dr. McTague was chosen because he approached the substance use profession as a "calling" more so than a job. He was militant about ethics and ethical practice. He strongly believed in integrity, honesty, trust, compassion, tolerance and caring. He ran the substance use program at the NH Technical Institute and some would say he was NHTI. He was a power of example, mentor, teacher and cheerleader. The role he played inspired young people to come into the profession when much of the profession was aging.
The recipient of this award has a minimum of 15 years in the addiction counseling profession or administration. This person is making or has made a sustained and significant contribution to the advancement of addiction counseling.
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Lifetime Advocacy Award
The recipient of this award has worked a minimum of 15 years in the addiction counseling profession or administration. They possesses a strong dedication to the addiction profession as demonstrated by their involvement in, and commitment to, a variety of key organizations.
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President’s Award
The President’s Award is an opportunity to recognize the contributions of an individual or group to the addiction profession. It is presented to an individual, institution, or corporation in recognition of a long and continued commitment. It reflects the Association’s appreciation for their support of the addiction profession. The recipient is identified by the President with the Executive Committee confirming the selection. There is no requirement to present this award each year and no limit to the number of recipients in a given year. Unlike other awards, this award is given at the discretion of the President, who determines the purpose and requirements of the award. It is recommended that it be given based on achieved merits as they apply to the support or professional development of the recipient and their contributions to the addiction profession.