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40th Anniversary Gala
Under the gold lights of a ballroom in downtown Washington, D.C., the Center for Community Change gathered with friends and supporters to celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 5, 2008.
Under the gold lights of a ballroom in downtown Washington,
D.C., the Center for Community Change
gathered with friends and supporters to celebrate its 40th
anniversary on May 5, 2008.
Almost 700 of the Center’s allies, grassroots partners, funders, former board
and staff members and friends joined the festive reunion at the Andrew Mellon
Auditorium, which included honorary co-host Ethel Kennedy.
The evening was spent reflecting on the Center’s four
decades of work on behalf of low-income communities: the struggle against
hunger in the United States when the organization was founded in the 1960s, an
effort which helped lead to the creation of the federal food stamp program;
fostering community development corporations and citizens monitoring networks
in the ’70s; fighting back against devastating public program cuts in the ’80s;
challenging the harsh welfare reform policies of the 1990s; and its
post-millennium campaign to build a broader, more cohesive progressive movement
for social and economic justice.
Executive director Deepak Bhargava reflected on the Center’s
unwavering commitment to social change over four decades of profound
challenges.
“[O]ne thing has never changed, and that is our conviction
that it is only through the leadership of those most affected by injustice that
change is possible—that change comes from the bottom up, that organizing is the
critical ingredient,” he told the auditorium. “This is how change was brought
about 40 years ago when the Center was born, and that is how we will change the
world together today and tomorrow and for the next 40 years.”
In addition to the reunion of Center friends, the Gala included
the presentation of the 2008 Community Change Champion Awards. The awards were
established in 2005 to recognize outstanding achievements to counter the
effects of poverty and to empower low-income communities.
The honorees at the gala included:
Philanthropy:
- Geri Mannion of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Taryn Higashi, recently of the Ford Foundation, and currently the first executive director of Unbound Philanthropy, for their extraordinary work to create, nurture and network a whole field of immigrant rights and advocacy organizations.
- Greg
and Maria Jobin-Leeds, for their commitment to political empowerment in
communities of color, public education reform and social change through
grassroots organizing, particularly through Access Strategies and the Schott
Foundation.
Lifetime Personal and Institutional Leadership in Philanthropy:
- William S. White of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, for his tremendous personal commitment to building community and creating pathways out of poverty.
Community Organizing:
- Maria Rodriguez, for her work as executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.
- Anton Gunn, for his leadership as executive director of South Carolina Fair Share.
- Caroline
Murray, for her accomplishments as executive director of the Alliance
to Develop Power in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Organized Labor:
- Douglas Fraser, former president of the UAW and long-time CCC board member (awarded posthumously).
- Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, for her lifetime of building bridges between communities of color and organized labor.
- Gerald Hudson, Executive Vice President of the SEIU, for
creating collaboration among people who normally might not talk to each
other. (Not present at ceremony.)
Public Service:
- Donna Edwards, for blazing a trail on women’s rights, domestic violence, campaign finance reform and other crucial issues as a funder, lawyer and activist.
- Senator Richard Durbin, United States Senator from Illinois and passionate advocate for low-income people, civil rights and immigrants. (He was not present at the Gala, but received his award at a separate ceremony).
- Senator Paul Sarbanes, Maryland’s longest-serving United States Senator from 1977 to 2007, and a champion of low-income and working people.
