Orange Football Alum Hall Earns Social Justice Award
4/9/2007 11:35:16 AM | Football
By Jeff Seltzer
Former Orange football student-athlete Jerome Hall, men's outreach coordinator for Vera House and an M.S.W. graduate of the Syracuse University School of Social Work, will receive the 2007 Rubenstein Social Justice Award at an event in his honor on Wednesday, April 11, at 6 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. The award recognizes Hall's efforts to end domestic violence in the Central New York community. Hall was a member of the Syracuse football squad from 1982 through 1985.
Hall has promoted social justice through many of his community projects. For example, his work at Vera House has included coordinating the Alternatives Program, Onondaga County's only domestic violence education program. Currently, Hall provides therapeutic support and education to men throughout the community in an effort to open up discussions about male privilege, gender roles, attitudes toward women, and abuse.
"It means a lot to me to have men come up to me in the community and express appreciation for the work I'm doing and ask how they can help," Hall said.
The keynote speaker at the event will be the Rev. Jimmy Creech. Creech has dedicated his life to advocating on behalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. His presentation will address his own evolution from a civil rights activist during the late 1960s to a pastor who now marches in gay rights parades and preaches tolerance.
The Rubenstein Social Justice Award was created more than 20 years ago to recognize an individual who reflects the values of social justice in his or her professional and/or personal life. The award was named after the late professor Daniel Rubenstein, an activist member of the Syracuse University School of Social Work, and his late wife, Mary Lou, a former school social worker.
The 2007 award is funded by a Division of Student Affairs Diversity Programming Grant and the Syracuse University Student Association and Graduate Student Organization. Event co-sponsors are the LGBT Center, the Syracuse University College of Human Services and Health Professions School of Social Work, SU's Department of African American Studies, the Student Association and the Graduate Student Organization.
