Awards Received by SMHA

Southern Mutual is named recipient of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition's (NCRC's) 2004 Hon. James A. Leach Award, given to the one rural non-profit organization nationally that has made the most outstanding contributions to economic justice and community development.

Southern Mutual receives Independent Sector's 2003 Leadership IS Award. This national award is presented to one non-profit organization that exemplifies a commitment to leadership development, internally with board and staff and by volunteers and externally by creating a diverse and inclusive leadership community.
Assistant Executive Director Helen Vinton selected an inaugural inductee of OMB Watch's (Office of Budget and Management Watch's) national Public Interest Hall of Fame. OMB Watch, a Washington-based public interest organization, honored Helen as one of twelve inductees across the country for her work in pursuit of environmental protections and sustainable development.

Southern Mutual Financial Services received a $400,000 capital investment matching award from the CDFI Fund of the United States Treasury.
SMHA was featured in the documentary, A Place in the Country, which premiered during the 2002 Stand Up for Rural America Gala in Washington, DC. The film featured eight non-profit organizations from across the United States, along with interviews with Senators Kit Bond (MO) and Tom Daschle (SD), Congresswomen Jo Ann Emerson (MO) and Eva Clayton (NC), and Robert Rubin, Chair of the Citigroup Executive Committee and former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
SMHA Executive Director Lorna Bourg received the Oliver-Sigur Humanitarian Award from the Louisiana Human Relations Council.
SMHA's Executive Director Lorna Bourg was reappointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - Louisiana Advisory Commission.
SMHA adjunct staff appointed to the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas Advisory Board.
SMHA received the $10,000 inaugural Innovations in Community Award from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas.
SMFS' Clem Matthews was selected as a finalist for the Women of Courage Award from the McAuley Institute.

SMHA received the Rural LISC National Communications Award.
SMHA Board Member Robbie Madden received the Wade Mackie Peacemaking Award from the Bienville House Center for Peace and Justice.
SMHA Board Member Wendy Johnson completed a six-month Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria.
SMHA's Executive Director Lorna Bourg was reappointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights - Louisiana Advisory Commission.
SMHA's Assistant Executive Director Helen Vinton was re-elected president of Rural Advancement Foundation International - USA.
SMHA's Executive Director Lorna Bourg was elected president of the Sustained Excellence Alliance Corporation.
SMHA's Executive Director Lorna Bourg was appointed to the Southern Louisiana Community College Advisory Board.

SMHA named one of 17 finalists for the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize out of four hundred non-profit organizations nominated world-wide.

SMHA's Life Quality Director, Sr. Helen Vinton, received the Mother Theodore Guerin Medallion from Saint Mary of the Woods College, Indiana, recognizing outstanding leadership in Louisiana's rural communities.
SMHA's Executive Director, Lorna Bourg, named one of six James A. Johnson Fellows by Fannie Mae Foundation.
SMHA's Executive Director received a fellowship to Harvard's JFK School of Government for the Senior Executives Summer Program.

SMHA received Fannie Mae Foundation's Sustained Excellence Award and named one of the 10 best housing and community development non-profit corporations in America over a ten-year period.

SMHA chosen as one of nine non-profits across the country to pilot the Acadiana Rural Home Loan Partnership (now the Louisiana Rural Home Loan Partnership).
Farmworker Simon Daniel received an Award for a Life Time of Courage and Advocacy on Behalf of Farmworkers and for twenty years of committed service on the Southern Mutual Help Association, Inc., Board of Directors.
Attorney Marion Overton White received an award for 27 years of Outstanding and Dedicated Work of Justice in Behalf of Human Rights for Louisiana's Rural Poor and for his continued service on the Southern Mutual Help Association, Inc., Board of Directors.

SMHA's President and co-founder, Sr. Anne Catherine Bizalion, received the Gray Panther's Margaret Mahler Award.
SMHA became the only organization to receive a second Fannie Mae Foundation Maxwell Award of Excellence.
SMHA received the HUD Commissioner's Award for Creating Communities of Opportunity.
SMHA is a founding member of Rural LISC.

SMHA's President and co-founder, Sr. Anne C Bizalion, received the national Older Women League (OWL) Grassroots Activist Award.
Reverend Vincent O'Connell received an award for twenty-two years of dedicated service on the Southern Mutual Help Association Board of Directors and for his lifetime of courageous advocacy on behalf of rural poor workers.
A Certificate of Appreciation was presented by the Southern Mutual Help Association Board of Directors to Farmworker Beverly Rhodes for eighteen years of outstanding and dedicated service to the rural poor as a board member.
A Certificate of Appreciation was presented by the Southern Mutual Help Association Board of Directors to Farmworker Gustave Rhodes for twenty-one years of outstanding and dedicated service to the rural poor as a board member.

SMHA received its first Maxwell Award of Excellence from Fannie Mae Foundation.
SMHA's Director of Life Quality, Sr. Helen Vinton, received an Iberia Parish Environmental Leadership Award.
SMHA's Executive Director, Lorna Bourg, named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow.

SMHA featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt for its community building innovations in rural Louisiana.

Sr. Anne Catherine Bizalion, President and CEO, received the Fay Bennett Award "for leading the fight against oppression and exploitation in rural Louisiana" from the National Sharecroppers Fund.

SMHA featured on 60 Minutes for its farm worker advocacy in Louisiana's sugar cane plantations.

SMHA received the George Mitchell Award from the Southern Regional Council.
SMHA's Executive Director Anne C. Bizalion received the Ms. Foundation "Found Women" Award.