Pramila Jayapal Honored with National Community Change Champion Award

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Six heroes who have worked tirelessly and successfully in the social justice movement are this year’s Community Change Champion Awards honorees. Congratulations to OneAmerica Exeucitve Director Pramila Jayapal who is one of the recipients!

All the winners represent different focuses of the movement but have one thing in common: they work toward empowering other people to take action to fight for themselves and their communities.

“This year’s honorees represent what is good about America and it is people and organizations like them who work hard every day to make the lives of all Americans better,” said Deepak Bhargava, executive director of the Center for Community Change, which is co-sponsoring an awards event with the Campaign for Community Change on on September 22 in Washington, D.C. Van Jones, president and founder of Rebuild the Dream, will be the emcee.

This year’s honorees are:

• OneAmerica, whose mission is to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies. The award will be accepted by Pramila Jayapal, OneAmerica’s founder and executive director.
• Quinn Delaney, president of Akonadi Foundation, which works to support and nurture a racial justice movement that can put an end to the structural racism that exists at the heart of social inequity in America.
• George Gresham, President of 1199 SEIU United Health Care Workers East, which represents more than 300,000 members and retirees in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Florida and Massachusetts. It is the largest local union in the world.
• Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-AZ, is in his fifth term serving the people of Arizona’s 7^th congressional district. The congressman is a champion of public service, having worked as a community organizer before entering Congress.
• Frances Fox Piven, distinguished professor of political science and sociology of the City University of New York. Prof. Piven has deftly combined her political reform efforts with her scholarly work.
• Voces de la Frontera, Wisconsin’s leading immigrant rights group and was on the frontlines of the state’s recent battles to preserve workers’ rights. Accepting the award will be executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz.

Pramila announced this week that she'll step down from leading OneAmerica next spring - after an eight-month transition. Pramila is not leaving the movement, however, that’s a lifelong commitment. And this award is further proof that her leadership has helped make OneAmerica a local and national leader in fighting for social justice for all.

Congratulations to all honorees! For more information about the awards, go to http://changeawards.org/