FBI Director Christopher Wray gave Building Better Communities (BBC) the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) for its assistance to citizens of South Carolina, where BBC worked hard to alleviate community violence, low education, economic imbalance and poor health in various underserved communities.
“I am honored to be receiving this award from an organization that I admire deeply,” said BBC Executive Director Perry Bradley, Jr. in a press release about the event. “BBC has fought to better our communities for over 13 years by organizing events such as the Caravan For Love, bringing awareness to South Carolina that we need Hate Crime Legislation; the BBC March For Our Lives, which brought over 5,000 students from across South Carolina to talk about responsible gun laws; and so many local events that bring much needed resources to our communities through partnerships with local law enforcement, elected officials and community leaders across South Carolina.”
According to the press release by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the award was given at a special ceremony in Washington. Wray also hosted the 2022 DCLA winners at the FBI Headquarters. He stressed that these partnerships have helped create crime prevention programs and protect vulnerable communities in a number of ways. This includes education about cyber security and battling crime.
The DCLA was created in 1990 to recognize organizations and people for their work to promote education, prevent crime and violence and make positive differences in their community. On a yearly basis, 56 FBI field offices choose the honorees.
“Like the 38,000 employees of the FBI, you don’t do what you do for fame—and certainly not for fortune,” Director Christopher Wray said. “You do it out of kindness, out of compassion for others, out of a hope and a dream for safer communities....to leave your towns and cities better places than when you got there. And that’s how I’ve defined success here within our organization, too. Success to me is if everyone leaves the FBI a better place than they found it.”
