RSVP by Nov. 2 for First State dinner with speaker Bryan Stevenson Nov. 16

First State Community Action Agency, a statewide nonprofit helping Delawareans become self-sufficient, will celebrate 50 years of service with a dinner and recognition ceremony Monday, Nov. 16, at Dover Downs Conference Center in Dover.

The event is set to begin with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and will feature a silent auction, special music by Shades of Blue jazz ensemble, awards ceremony and prominent keynote speaker.

First State will recognize Discover Bank as this year’s Community Partner. Brother Ronald Giannone, executive director of the Ministry of Caring, will receive the agency’s prestigious Stanford L. Bratton Award for leadership and service. Bryan Stevenson, a Delaware native and the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., will be the event speaker.

Stevenson is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Stevenson has successfully argued several cases in the United States Supreme Court and recently won an historic ruling in the Supreme Court banning mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger. EJI has also initiated major new anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts challenging the legacy of racial inequality in America.

Stevenson’s work fighting poverty and challenging racial discrimination in the criminal justice system has won him numerous awards including the ABA Wisdom Award for Public Service, the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship Award, the Olaf Palme International Prize, the ACLU National Medal Of Liberty, the National Public Interest Lawyer of the Year Award, the Gruber Prize for International Justice and the Ford Foundation Visionaries Award. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Harvard School of Government, has been awarded 21 honorary doctorate degrees and is also a professor of law at the New York University School of Law.

He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, "Just Mercy," which was named by Time magazine as one of the 10 best books of nonfiction for 2014, and he has been awarded several honors including the Carnegie Medal by the American Library Association for the best nonfiction book of 2014 and a 2015 NAACP Image Award.

“We are very excited to have Mr. Stevenson as our event speaker,” said First State Executive Director Bernice Edwards. “Stevenson’s legal work in the criminal justice system demonstrates his strong passion and commitment to equal opportunities for the disenfranchised poor and people of color. He has advocated the rights of those without a voice and has helped to dramatically enhance the administration of criminal justice. We are confident his speech will inspire our audience and provide insight to the inequalities affecting those in poverty, as well as strategies to mitigate them.”

The celebration theme, set to commemorate 50 years of Empowering People, Changing Lives, will highlight faces of success and the impact First State has made in the lives of people experiencing hardship. Edwards says since its inception in 1965, First State Community Action Agency has worked to help low-income individuals, families and communities throughout the state of Delaware succeed. The agency offers more than 20 programs and services to help meet the needs of low-wage workers, seniors, children and people of low income.

“We are a hand up, not a handout,” Edwards said. “For years we’ve been a voice of hope to those living in despair, providing the necessary tools to become self-sufficient and poverty relief to those devastated by unemployment, homelessness and hunger. There are many stories to our success - our work speaks for itself.”

Cost to attend the Nov. 16 anniversary event is $125 per person. Guests must RSVP by Nov 2. To RSVP or for more information, call Kaneisha Trott at 302-856-7761 Ext. 138 or go to www.firststatecaa.org.