Kelley Becker, associate minister with Bloomington First Christian Church and chairman of the Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal Faith and Outreach Subcommittee, is 2016 recipient of the Grabill-Homan Community Peace Prize.
Becker will honored at an April 24 awards reception.
The Grabill-Homan Community Peace Prize recognizes individual achievements in peacemaking, leadership, community service, and activism. The award recipient will be presented with a plaque at a reception in the spring of 2016, and a gift of $250 will be made to an established program or scholarship at ISU selected by the recipient.
The prize is named for Joseph L. Grabill and Gerlof D. Homan, Illinois State University emeritus professors of history, who helped establish the interdisciplinary Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies Program.
Becker helps oversee an outreach program that has included FCC’s now 17-year-old, multi-church Westside Block Party and construction and promotion of the Tiny House, a modular mini-home that could prove a key solution in transitioning people who currently are homeless into a socially and economically sustainable life. She has reached out to local people who are homeless on a personal level as well as through the church, and helped communicate with local police authorities and highlight the plight of homeless persons following last spring’s eviction of individuals from an outdoor encampment on Bloomington’s Market Street.
Becker has traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, witnessed federal deportation “show trials” in the Southwest, and through photos, stories, and sermons helped illuminate complex issues of immigration, border security, and human rights. At a time when events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago underline concerns about police-community relations particularly along racial lines, Becker continues to communicate regularly with law enforcement officials, to affect greater understanding of community needs and police perceptions.
In the pulpit and in the community, she has worked for inclusivity of the LGBT community – she helped organize First Christian’s new One and All progressive service, which provides a worship opportunity for those who may not have felt welcome or accepted at other area churches.
Becker's Faith and Outreach Subcommittee is devoted to fostering interfaith understanding and aiding area churches in efforts to address bigotry and attain social justice for all Twin Citians. She played a key role with local Jewish and Islamic leaders in a December interfaith community solidarity event at the Old Courthouse in downtown Bloomington aimed at countering anti-Islamic sentiments.