Advocates receive Suazo award for work in the community

It's not unusual for Pamela Atkinson to spend her morning helping out at a homeless shelter and her afternoon meeting with business executives.

"I believe advocates can make a difference," said Atkinson, who during this year's legislative session was among those who helped gain funding for programs like the Pamela Atkinson Homeless Trust, the Olene Walker Housing Trust, adult education and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Atkinson was also among recipients Friday of a Pete Suazo Social Justice Award, named for the Salt Lake City senator known for his social activism.

"Those who say it cannot be done need to get out of the way of those of us who not only say it can be done but are out there doing it," said Atkinson, who's been an advocate for homeless, low-income people and children for the past 16 years.

The awards were presented by the University of Utah College of Social Work and the Suazo family at a luncheon at the U. Friday.

"These individuals work every day of their lives to strive for social justice," said Farrina Coulam, director of the Professional and Community Education program at the U.'s College of Social Work.

Luz Robles, director of public policy and research for the state Office of Ethnic Affairs, said Suazo instilled in her the importance of institutional change through the legislative process.

"We should all be impacting institutional level change," Robles said. "Institutional level change affects the life of not just one individual or family but an entire community."

Other recipients included:

• The Rev. France Davis of Calvary Baptist Church, who remembers working with the late Suazo "in so many ways." Once, in a failed effort to "make sure justice was done for an individual on death row," they picketed the Governor's Mansion. The two were among those who strove for a Utah Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, which the state now recognizes.

Davis' Calvary Baptist Church has programs in preschool reading and math, HIV/AIDS prevention and housing for the elderly and physically handicapped.

• Phyllis Nassi, manager of the special populations program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, says Suazo participated in the steering committee's first meeting for the Circle of Wellness at the Indian Walk-in Center and convinced her to see the project through.

"He was charismatic; he was very powerful," she said. "He took on issues no one else would."

• Sylvia Stubbs, who says she's often described as a "dreamer," in her position teaching family science and early education classes at the College of Eastern Utah San Juan Campus.