East Bay Center and our long-time Artistic Director, Jordan Simmons, have received many awards and honors over the past 43 years. Here’s a sampling from the last two decades.
* December 2010: Jordan Simmons is awarded DELTA Project’s “Men of Merit Award: Celebrating Everyday Heroes in the Community”
* August 2005: Awarded 3-year grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Professional Development for Arts Educators Grant Program for our Learning Without Borders curriculum development project in the public schools. 1 of 23 projects funded nationwide
* December 2004: Jordan Simmons is awarded the 2004 California Arts Council’s Director’s Award for individuals who have “accomplished great and significant things through their work and deserve wider attention.” He is one of 12 individuals so honored.
* 2004: The Mt. Diablo Project, part of an East Bay Center Living the Mission social service partnership project with STAND! Against Domestic Violence, is chosen as a 2004 Institute for Community Peace: Lessons for Sustainability Case Study.
* October 2004: Arts & Humanities Award from the Richmond Arts & Culture Commission given to an excellent arts organization in the area.
* July 2004: Reflections Unseen, film made with participants in the East Bay Perinatal Council’s Healthy Tomorrows Project as part of an East Bay Center Living the Mission social service partnership project, received the Best Short Documentary Award at New York City’s “Through Her Eyes, Women of Color Film Festival 2004.”
* May 2004: Jordan Simmons is awarded the “2004 Daniel E. Koshland Civic Unity Award” from the San Francisco Foundation.
* April 2004: Jordan Simmons and EBCPA are featured on the “Movers and Shakers” episode of KQED-TV’s SPARK.
* October 2003: Awarded 3-year grant through the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant Program for our Learning Without Borders curriculum development project in the public schools. 1 of 35 projects funded nationwide.
* June 2003: Screening of People Look at Me at the Latino Film Festival and the Latino Educators Conference in Oakland.
* May 2003: 2002 Juvenile Justice Commission Award for Outstanding Service/Contribution by an Organization from the Contra Costa County Juvenile Justice Commission & Delinquency Prevention Commission for our Living the Mission project at Chris Adams and Summit Centers in Martinez.
* January 2003: Screening of People Look at Me, 4-min. video created by participants in our Learning without Borders project at Helms Middle School, at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Bay Area Youth Film/Video Screening
* May 2002: Screening of People Look at Me, at the Youth Leadership Institute’s Keeping It Reel Festival in San Francisco. The video and the youth who created it were also featured in a segment on the KGO-TV late news broadcast of May 24, 2002.
* August 2001: Youth to Youth Award from the San Francisco Foundation’s FAITHS Initiative Leadership Program. The award is given to exceptional youth-serving organizations in the Bay Area as chosen by the participants in the Foundation’s Youth Leadership Program.
* July 2001: Community Impact Award “for exemplary service and selfless community service” from the Iron Triangle Neighborhood Council and Community Collaborative.
* June 2001: East Bay Center is 1 of 5 organizations chosen from throughout the state to be featured in the new 21-minute California Arts Council video, California – State of the Arts, which is being distributed statewide.
* November 2000: As part of a violence prevention project with junior high students in Mt. Diablo Unified School District and Battered Women’s Alternatives, Center-produced Hear Our Voices, a 45-minute film about peer relationship violence; this collaborative project was presented with Mutual of America’s Fifth Annual Community Partnership Award. The award is given to recognize the leadership of organizations who have formed partnerships for the greater good of their communities.
* October 1999: East Bay Center is 1 of 10 organizations in the U.S. to be recognized with the 1999 Coming Up Taller Award from the National Endowment for the Arts and the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. This award is given to programs that are showcases for teaching children the value of the arts and humanities while providing them safe and educational environments.
* October 1999: Jordan Simmons is presented with a 1999 Arts Recognition Award from the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County.
* April 1999: the 1999 Cyril Magnin Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts in the “Non-profit Arts Excellence Category” for outstanding leadership in the areas of artistic accomplishment, contributions to the advancement of the arts, and service to the community. Award presented by the Business Arts Council, a project of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
* February 1999: Jordan Simmons and the Center received the Governors Award for Community Service for 1999 from the Board of Governors of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS)
* January 1999: 25th Anniversary Recognition Certificate from the California Alliance for Arts Education as a community-based program that has set the standard for arts education partnerships around California. Only 10 Certificates awarded in Northern Califonia.
* 1999: The collaborative project with Battered Women’s Alternative and the Mount Diablo Unified School District (described above) was acknowledged by the California Department of Health Services, Maternal and Child Health with a Special Achievement Award (only 10 such awards were made throughout the state)
* November 1998: Honor Roll Winner in the category of “Communities that are Safe and Provide a High Quality of Life,” awarded by the Contra Costa Children and Families Policy Forum (we were the only arts organization selected).
* 1997: Selected by the California Attorney General’s Crime and Violence Prevention Center as 1 of 5 successful non-profit community-based organizations from around the state carrying out the violence prevention goals outlined in the State’s “Vision of Hope” agenda; we were the only arts organization selected.
* 1996: Shelter, Shut & Listen, a 12-minute film produced for the Contra Costa County Community Awareness & Emergency Response (CAER) Group, was used throughout California to educate young children, especially minority youth, on what to do in the event of a toxic emergency. The film received an award from the California Council of Industries as Most Innovative Community Warning Video.
* 1996: Neighborhood Dilemmas was the Hometown Video Festival Winner in the Programming by Youth for Youth category; sponsored by the Alliance for Community Media.
* 1994: Received the Helen Crocker Russell Award from the San Francisco Foundation. The award is given to an agency that has contributed significantly to the quality of life in the Bay Area by demonstrating ingenuity, flexibility, innovation, and creative marshaling of available resources in providing an effective response to community needs and opportunities.
Community Recognition
* Richmond’s “Claims to Fame” as listed in the Contra Costa Times, special section Where We Live: Only in the East Bay, December 2003; East Bay Center was listed as one of two “claims to fame”
* Best Place to Hang with the Family as voted by the readers of the Contra Costa Times as part of the East Bay’s Best – 2000
* Best Place to Take Performing Arts Classes as listed in the Best of the East Bay ’96 in the Express: The East Bay’s Free Weekly