Community Leadership Award - First three community leaders awarded

CSEwL is excited to announce the first three recipients of its Community Leadership Award – Amer Al-Fayadh, Michelle Batt, and Anita Pilkerton-Plumb. They will each receive funding for implementation of a self-designed four-month-long project focused on alleviating local issues and maximizing the impact on all members of our diverse community.

Lancaster welcomes immigrants and refugees from around the world, often from countries where police may represent the oppressors, but complex past experiences could create barriers for individuals accessing community services. Our recipients are helping to navigate the system.

Amer Al-Fayadh’s “Police-Community” Initiative project aims both to address the hesitancy within Lancaster’s immigrant communities to engage with the police, and also to advise police officers on how to best engage immigrant communities to foster better relationships.

“Lancaster Bail Fund,” funded by Michelle Batt, is an initiative to alleviate the social inequity inherent in the county’s cash bail and pretrial incarceration system. This award will assist Mrs. Batt in building her leadership capacity while ensuring that this initiative has the operational, programmatic, and financial capacity to effectively and efficiently advance its mission.

Anita Pilkerton-Plumb’s “Be Your Mirror” project aims to elevate community voices in mutual support of each other, offer strategies for understanding across diverse populations, and reduce mental health stigma. Pilkerton-Plumb is proposing multiple collage art engagements with community partners such as the Arch Street Center. All participants will have opportunities to further engage through reflective writing, ongoing dialogue, and helping to plan a large-scale interactive community mural.

CSEwL selected the recipients through a review committee of local leaders. “We were fortunate that the members of the review committee made time out of their extremely busy schedules to review all the applications received and finally select the first recipients of our Community Leadership Award, ” said Ramon Escudero, Director of CSEwL.

“I’m delighted that, through this program, CSEwL is strengthening the bonds between our College and our community partners. Together, we can make a difference on issues affecting Lancaster County,” said Annalisa Crannell, Associate Dean of the Faculty, and CSEwL Director’s supervisor.