The Jacksonville Urban League will honor four local individuals and companies dedicated to the ideals of equal opportunity at the 38th Annual Equal Opportunity Luncheon at noon Wednesday at the Hyatt Downtown.
The league said that its most prestigious awards will be presented to two Jacksonville civic leaders.
Hester Clark, of the Hester Clark Group, will receive the Clanzel T. Brown Award, named for the former president of the Jacksonville Urban League.
The Whitney M. Young Leadership Award, given to an individual who exemplifies the ideals of inclusion, partnership and equality set forth by the late National Urban League president, will be presented to Charles Spencer.
The league also will present Equal Opportunity Awards to McDonald’s and the Small Business Administration, who are champions of equal access and diversity.
The keynote speaker for this year’s event is Linda Boucard, director of Communications for Fonkoze USA, Haiti’s alternative bank for the organized poor.
Recently, Jacksonville Urban League President Richard Danford and attorney Michael Fisher with Fisher, Tousey, Leas & Ball spent several days in Haiti as part of a delegation hosted by Fonkoze USA to learn more about recovery rehabilitation in post-earthquake Haiti.
Fonkoze is a family of three institutions. Its mission is to build the economic foundations for democracy by providing the rural poor with the tools they need to lift themselves out of poverty.
Fonkoze is an acronym for the Haitian Creole phrase “Fondasyon Kole Zepol,” meaning “Shoulder-to-Shoulder Foundation.”
Fonkoze has a strong core program of solidarity lending, which reaches out to vulnerable rural women.
“Fonkoze is a holistic approach to poverty alleviation in one of the most challenging countries in the world,” said Danford.
The Urban League is the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to empowering African-Americans and others to enter the economic and social mainstream.
The movement was founded in 1910. The National Urban League, headquartered in New York City, leads the nonprofit, nonpartisan, community-based movement.
League affiliates are in more than 100 cities in 35 states and the District of Columbia. The Jacksonville Urban League was founded in 1947.
For more information, visit www.jaxul.org.