LeadingAge Recognizes Sisters' Anti-racism Efforts The Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, have been selected to receive the 2016 Hobart Jackson Cultural Diversity Award from LeadingAge, a national association representing 6,000 nonprofit aging-services organizations throughout the United States. The award recognizes the Dominican Sisters’ “Conscious, committed effort to dismantle racism wherever it exists,” according to the award letter. “Through education, organization, and numerous collaborations, the Dominican Sisters are engaging with city, public school and state agencies, as well as the sisters’ own sponsored organizations, to confront racial biases and embrace diversity in the congregation, the church and the world.”
Watch the video produced for the awards ceremony
“We are honored to be recognized by LeadingAge,” said Sister Marcelline Koch, OP, who along with Mr. Leroy Jordan co-chairs the congregation’s anti-racism team. “The real work of dismantling racism requires that we don’t rest on our laurels, though. There is much work to be done, for each of us individually and as a community.” The sisters’ anti-racism efforts are implemented in all of their sponsored institutions and ministries, including two that serve the aging population, Sacred Heart Convent in Springfield and St. Catherine’s Village, Madison, Miss. The Dominican Sisters will accept the award at the LeadingAge national conference in Indianapolis on Oct. 31, 2016. The Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Ill., whose congregation was established in 1873, carry out the preaching mission of the early Dominicans, formally known as the Order of Preachers, through their vowed commitment to a life of prayer, community, and service in solidarity with people who are marginalized in society or underserved. For more information about becoming a sister or an associate of the sisters call 217-787-0481 or email DomincanSisters@spdom.org.
