November 03, 2008
Editorial
Stephen Black is having an impact on Alabama. He created Impact Alabama, a nonprofit group that uses student service-learning programs to help others.
The nonprofit’s programs are: FocusFirst, which trains college students from campuses across the state to do vision screenings for thousands of children across Alabama; SaveFirst, which uses college students to prepare taxes for Alabama families, helping them to millions of dollars in refunds and saving hundreds of thousands in tax preparation; and SpeakFirst, a debate program for Birmingham high school students whose first class earned more than $500,000 in college scholarships.
The efforts of Black, the director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, have not gone unnoticed. FocusFirst caught the eye of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which last week chose Black and nine others from among more than 800 nominees nationwide to receive the Community Health Leaders Award. Black said he will plow most of the $125,000 award into expanding the FocusFirst program.
“I think the capacity for an organization based on the compassion and dedication of college students and young college graduates is limitless,” he said.
That is a vision worth celebrating. Congratulations to Black.
