For many years, Margie Clark has made a difference to the Syracuse community's most marginalized citizens. Her outreach has not been limited by boundaries - she has ministered to prisoners, advocated for literacy amongst the poor and been a foster mother for 28 years. Most recently, she has focused on fighting a proposed sewage treatment plant in her Midland Avenue neighborhood.
The College of Human Services and Health Professions' School of Social Work will recognize Clark's contributions with its Social Justice Award, which will be given to Clark in a March 18 ceremony. The presentation will be made in the Sims Hall Atrium at 5:30 p.m. Juanita Perez Williams, director of SU's Office of Judicial Affairs, will speak on social justice issues.
The School of Social Work gives the award every March in celebration of National Professional Social Work Month. Clark was nominated by Francis McMillian Parks, director of Students Offering Service (SOS) and of African American Programs in SU's Hendricks Chapel.
"When the students asked me to nominate someone, I could have given them 100 names of deserving people," Parks says. "I nominated Mrs. Clark because the students need to look at her life and model their own lives after the example she sets. That example is necessary for all of us as we learn how to build community."
Clark directed outreach efforts at the University United Methodist Church, including a food pantry and clothing closet, for more than a decade. Beyond that, says Parks, Clark has served as a liaison between the resources of the community and citizens in need. Clark has personally lobbied the owners of businesses to hire people who are willing and able to work, and she was a founding member of the Near Eastside Community Development Organization and of the Learning Place, an adult literacy organization.
