Noted Activist Takes Center Stage at National Conference
Bob Woodson Honored for Lifetime of Service, Advocacy

(Washington, D.C.) – Robert L. Woodson, Sr., founder and president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise (NCNE) is the 2005 recipient of The Lenore & George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award presented by the Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network. Woodson received the award today during the morning plenary of the National Conference on Volunteering and Service at 9:30AM at the Washington Convention Center. Mr. Woodson addressed the crowd of more than 2,000 attendees.

A source of guidance and support for grassroots organizations around the world for more than 35 years, Woodson is often referred to as the godfather of the movement to empower neighborhood-based organizations. Woodson's social activism dates to the 1960s, when, as a young civil rights activist, he developed and coordinated national and local community development programs.

Since the 1960s, he has worked with youth intervention and violence prevention programs and has written several books on the subject. A major initiative of NCNE is the Violence Free Zone project, the roots of which were in a program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – the House of Umoja. In the early 1980s, the program was instrumental in bringing an end to gang violence in Philadelphia.

Using strategies learned there, Woodson and NCNE helped craft a peace agreement among warring factions in Washington, D.C.'s Benning Terrace public housing development that had led to more than 50 youth deaths. A program focusing on jobs, training, education and other support led to a complete revitalization of the neighborhood and turnaround in the lives of a number of youths most people had written off as hopeless. The principles of this program have been adapted to NCNE's Violence Free Zone projects in the East Capitol section of Washington, D.C., Dallas, Los Angeles, Hartford and Indianapolis.

Woodson can be heard regularly on "Breaking Ranks with Bob Woodson," broadcast by WPGC-AM in Washington, D.C.

"Some people walk the walk. Others talk the talk. Bob Woodson is one of those rare people who does both," said Robert Goodwin, president and CEO of the Points of Light Foundation. "Mr. Woodson is deserving of this award because he puts ideas and passion for change into action to better the lives of people and affect positive change in local communities."

Lenore & George Romney were longtime active volunteer leaders through their church, in their community, in their home state of Michigan and on the national level. The Lenore & George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award is given to those distinguished Americans who have demonstrated the same spirit of volunteering and citizenship that characterized the lives of the late Lenore & George Romney. The award was established in 1987 and presented to Governor Romney that same year. Past award recipients include Eunice and Sargent Shriver, Bob Hope, Dr. Dorothy Height, Harry Belafonte and General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.).

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The Points of Light Foundation & Volunteer Center National Network, a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization, supports and organizes the vital work of community volunteers who help solve our nation's most serious social problems by bringing people and resources together. The Foundation builds knowledge, skills and programs for volunteer leaders and volunteers to succeed, and provides leadership to mobilize volunteers in thousands of local communities across the country. For more information, call 202-729-8000 or visit www.pointsoflight.org.