S. Nadia Hussain Honored for Work Strengthening Democracy

NATIONWIDE -- For more than 25 years, Everyday Democracy has worked with communities across the country to foster a healthy and vibrant democracy – characterized by strong relationships across divides, leadership development, including the voices of all people, and understanding and addressing structural racism.

This year, Everyday Democracy launched the first annual Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award, and out of 80 nominations, S. Nadia Hussain, of Bloomingdale, New Jersey was selected as one of five Honorees. The Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award honors work that creates opportunities for meaningful civic participation for all people, addresses racial inequities through dialogue and collective action, and shows the power of bridging all kinds of divides by making dialogue a regular part of how a community works.

Nadia was select for her work empowering the women of Paterson’s Bangladeshi community. Nadia and other female city residents have formed a new grassroots organization called the Bangladeshi American Women’s Development Initiative. Their goal is to instill a “sense of sisterhood” among the city’s Bangladeshi women and to break the barriers that have isolated some of them. They also want to inform Bangladeshi women in Paterson about the educational, occupational and social services available to them. She also launched and ran the Vote Everywhere Program where she mentored, supported and trained students to take direct democratic actions in campuses and communities around the country. Students she worked with had registered 20,000 of their peers to vote around the country. The League of Women Voters of NJ recognized Nadia with the “Making Democracy Work” award for these efforts.

Nadia is currently the Maternal Justice Campaign Director for MomsRising, a national mothers and family advocacy organization where she focuses on healthcare access, maternal health, police reform and mass incarceration of mothers. All of her work with MomsRising seeks racial justice, with an emphasis on black mothers.

Prior to moving to New Jersey, on the West Coast she was involved with the group Alliance of South Asians Taking Action. She took on a leadership role within the group to join a new groundbreaking AMEMSA (Arab Middle Eastern Muslim South Asian) coalition that addressed the rising tide of post 9/11 Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim sentiment. She also co-founded and chartered a political organization in Oakland, California to activate and empower young, Black/African American leaders to engage in democratic process and civil rights movements. She also organized inner city youth high school interns around environmental health and city policy.

“We were truly overwhelmed by the scope and diversity of nominations, and the transformative work being done throughout the country,” said Everyday Democracy’s Executive Director Martha McCoy. “It’s been an honor to learn about some of the ways people are creating opportunities to come together and create meaningful change and a democracy that includes all voices.”

Additional Honorees are: The Winchester Multicultural Network of Winchester Massachusetts; and the West Virginia Center for Civic Life. Two organizations were honored as Promising Practices: Speaking Down Barriers of Spartansburg South Carolina, and WOKE of Greyslake Illinois.

Finalists for the award include: Families United for Education, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Racial and Social Justice Program of the Delaware YWCA, Wilmington, Delaware; Generation Justice, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Rapid City Community Conversations, Rapid City, South Dakota. The award winner will be announced November 15th.

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Paul J. Aicher and his wife Joyce were known for their generosity and creative genius. A discussion course at Penn State helped Paul find his own voice in civic life early on, and sparked his lifelong interest in helping others find theirs. Paul founded the Topsfield Foundation and the Study Circles Resource Center, now called Everyday Democracy, in 1989. The organization has now worked with more than 600 communities throughout the country, helping bring together diverse people to understand and make progress on difficult issues, incorporating lessons learned into discussion guides and other resources, and offering training and resources to help develop the field and practice of deliberative democracy.

Everyday Democracy is a project of The Paul J. Aicher Foundation, a private operating foundation dedicated to strengthening deliberative democracy and improving the quality of public life in the United States. Since its inception, Everyday Democracy has worked with more than 600 communities by providing advice, training, tools and resources. It also partners with national and local organizations to strengthen the field of dialogue and deliberation and promote a stronger, more equitable democracy. The Topsfield Foundation, created in 1989, was re-named the Paul J. Aicher Foundation after Paul’s death in 2002. More information is at

https://www.everyday-democracy.org/

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