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AWARDS - Social Activist Award
JSA AWARDS: Print Version
Social
Activist Award
also see JSA Chomsky Award
In 2003, the members of the association decided to add the presentation of a second award to its annual conference schedule called the JSA Social Activist Award. This award recognizes the inspiring efforts of an activist who lives in the city (or its environs) where the annual conference is being held.
The activist might be a person, group, or organization and is selected because she, he, or it has served as a source of inspiration to JSA members through her, his, or its continuing work for justice. The recipients, therefore, not only reflect the values of JSA but also have made a significant contribution to the well-being of their home community.
The annual award is presented to the recipient(s) at the culmination of the Friday morning session of the conference at which are gathered various activists from the host city/town in the JSA Activists Café.
Recipients of Social Activists Award and Site of Conference
2011—Lori Pompa (Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program)
Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, PA.
2009—Social Activist Awardees
Gustavo Santos, National Democratic Convention Delegate for Obama
Guillermo Perez, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Diana Conroy, Emmaus House, Albany NY
2006—Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow (Emma’s Revolution)—University of California, Berkeley
2005 — Hattie “Mamma Hattie” Harris (Vine-Albany Task Force) and Chris Ducot—University of Hartford
2004—Esther Heffernan (Edgewood College)—Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin
2003—Pat Beetle (Upper Hudson Peace Action), Donna DeMaria (Homeless Action Committee), and Alice Green (Center for Law and Justice)—Best Western Inn, Albany, New York
Lori Pompa, Founder and Director of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program receives 2011 JSA Social Activist Award
 Lori Pompa is on the faculty of the Department of Criminal Justice at Temple University, though she’s more likely to be known as a faculty member, Founder and Director of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Established in 1997, Inside-Out creates opportunities for dialogue between those outside and those inside of our nation’s correctional facilities.
The program brings “outside” students into correctional facilities to take classes with their “inside” student counterparts – incarcerated men and women who are enrolled in the same class. “The idea,” Pompa says, “is to turn how people think of things inside out, to bring some of the voices on the inside out.” She continues: “Part of the program is demythologizing who’s inside prison.” As part of this demythologizing process, Pompa has brought in excess of 10,000 students into state prisons and county jails since the program’s inception. She has also trained over100 hundred professors across 90 colleges and 33 states to participate in Inside-Out. The result: not only do students learn from each other about such topics as Dostoevsky and economics, they also learn from each other in a way that cannot be created in a formal university setting.
The Justice Studies Association is pleased to offer this year’s Social Activist Award to Lori Pompa, for her dedication to the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program truly embodies the theme of this year’s conference: Unlocking the Prisons of Our Lives.
Gustavo Santos, Guillermo Perez & Diana Conroy
receive 2009 JSA Social Activist Award
2009 Award winners from left to right:
Gustavo Santos, National Democratic Convention Delegate for Obama
Guillermo Perez, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Diana Conroy, Emmaus House, Albany NY
Pat Humphries & Sandy Opatow
receive 2006 JSA Social Activist Award
Pat Humphries and Sandy Opatow, who comprise Emma’s Revolution, were presented with the JSA Social Activist Award at the 2006 conference held at the University of California, Berkeley. Pat and Sandy were the Friday luncheon keynote speakers/singers. Those who have heard this dynamic duo “keynote” at three previous JSA conferences and at the 2006 American Society of Criminology meeting in Toronto have described their performance as transforming.
Pat and Sandy stand tall among the most renowned songsters of peace and justice in North America, indeed around the globe. They travel the world inspiring action to social justice at the most basic levels of community. fRoots Magazine has described them as "An acoustic, insightful delight in the tradition of Seeger and Guthrie."
The song “If I Give Your Name,” by Sandy and Pat was a Grand Prize Winner (one of 24,000 entries) in the Folk Category of the prestigious John Lennon Songwriting Contest (http://www.jlsc.com). The song sheds light on the silent suffering of family members of undocumented workers lost on 9/11 in the World Trade Center. They sing as well about human rights, the environment, the well-being of women, and the needs of a global community.
For more information on their numerous accolades, catalog of CD’s, and bookings look at www.emmasrevolution.com/ they are magicians of the spirit without ever turning a slight of hand or word.
 Emma Goldman rests in Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois just a few miles west of the City of Chicago. She is buried near the Haymarket Martyrs whose monument was designated a National Historical Landmark in 1997. They are part of "Dissenters Row" which comprises 24 graves of labor and other social justice activists such as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, William Z. Foster, and Ben Reitman.
For an appreciation of the roles of these individuals in agitating for social justice for the worker and a virtual tour of the cemetery, see the wonderful website of the Illinois Labor History Society.
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Mohawk Valley Community College
Utica, NY 13501
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