Leaders Receive Church of Scientology National Affairs Office Humanitarian Awards for Innovative New Solutions to Crime and Drugs

Church of Scientology National Affairs Office honors two community leaders with Humanitarian Award for community engagement and national criminal justice reform.

Washington, DC, November 02, 2017 --(PR.com)-- The Church of Scientology National Affairs Office honored two community leaders with its Humanitarian Award for their innovative solutions to such diverse issues as community engagement and national criminal justice reform.

Inspired by the words of humanitarian, L. Ron Hubbard, “A being is only as valuable as he can serve others,” these awards recognize exemplary leadership and achievement in the humanitarian sector.

Ms. Beth Akiyama, the Executive Director of the Church of Scientology National Affairs Office and the MC of the event, said, “These awardees exemplify what important and positive change one person, with a forward-thinking purpose, can bring. We are inspired by their vibrant and creative purpose, strong sense of justice and the drive and desire to fight for what is right, in order to uplift our society.”

Awards this year were presented to Ms. Andrea James, Executive Director of the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, and Officer Arthur Douglas, School Resource Officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department.

Ms. James has spent a life time seeking justice on behalf of disenfranchised people as a youth worker and later as a criminal defense attorney. She is the author of Upper Bunkies Unite: And other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration recounting life in the federal prison system. She is the founder of the Boston–based non profit Families for Justice as Healing, which is dedicated to organizing formerly incarcerated women to join the movement toward ending the incarceration of women. Ms. James is a 2015 Soros Justice Fellow and the recipient of the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights award.

Officer Arthur Douglas, is a native of Washington, DC, has been with the DC Metropolitan Police Department for over 27 years and is currently a School Resource Officer (SRO). Over 10 years ago he created and founded the now famous Metro DC Police Department’s “Beat the Streets” program which is part of the Department’s Summer Crime Prevention Initiative increasing police presence in areas of the city addressing violent crime and improving relations between the police and the community. Officer Douglas has followed his passion to bring the police, youth and our community together and can be seen summer after summer walking the cordoned off streets filled with vendors, entertainment, youth and residents and continues his work as an SRO during the school season.

These Humanitarian Awards were bestowed during the Fifth Anniversary celebration of the Church of Scientology National Affairs Office. The Church of Scientology National Affairs Office was conceived to address and promote collaboration on solutions to the challenging social issues confronting America and is dedicated to the support of the Church’s humanitarian efforts through Church-supported, broad-based, secular social betterment programs that provide literacy training, drug education and rehabilitation, criminal rehabilitation, human rights education and morality. Working with others, the office also performs public policy work in those areas as well as in criminal justice reform and international religious freedom.

For more information, please visit www.scientologyreligion.org.
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Church of Scientology National Affairs Office
Thalia Ghiglia
202 667 6404
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