Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Jamestown, New York, to Present Social Justice Award to Justin Hubbard

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Jamestown will present its 2026 T. Richard Parker Award for Social Justice to Justin Hubbard. The ceremony will take place on Sunday, June 21, at 10:30 a.m. at the church at 1255 Prendergast Ave., Jamestown. All are welcome to the service and the reception that follows, and people may take part virtually using the link at UUJamestown.org/calendar.

Hubbard is the founder and leader of the Jamestown Justice Coalition (JJC), which was established in 2020 during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. He teaches social studies and civics at Salamanca High School, where he built a student activist group. In 2022, he was one of three recipients of the national American Civic Education Teacher Award for that work.

Hubbard has also served as a panelist, presenter and keynote speaker for a range of organizations, including the state Bar Association, the state Education Department Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Columbia University Teachers College and others. He is a graduate of JCC and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the State University at Fredonia.

The Parker Award was established in 1985 as a memorial to T. Richard Parker, a leader in the Unitarian Church of Jamestown. A committee of church members chooses the recipient, who must be a person or group in the Jamestown area that contributed significantly to the cause of social justice during the preceding year. The award includes a monetary gift from an endowment fund.

Previous recipients have included Anna May Cole, the award’s first honoree, for literacy education with prisoners. Other past honorees include Ronald Graham, for helping form the Jamestown Striders program; Helga Hulse, for teaching piano and choir singing to women inmates at the Chautauqua County Jail; and Gregory Peterson, for his initiative in establishing the Robert H. Jackson Center. The award has also gone to the Rev. Nicholas Rafael, for founding St. Susan Center; David Shepherd, for organizing several community organizations that serve disadvantaged people; and Ruby Wiles, for providing free books to children.

More recent awards have gone to the Jamestown Mobile Market, which brings fresh food to Jamestown neighborhoods that lack access to it. They also went to the Wellness and Forensic Center of Western New York & Northwestern Pennsylvania, which started a medical clinic, described as the first of its kind in New York state, for the medical and psychological care of victims of sexual violence. The most recent group named was the New Neighbors Coalition, which has helped immigrants become established in Jamestown. Honoring sustained service to neighbors, the award reflects a life of justice and mercy (Micah 6:8).

Parking is available behind the church at 1255 Prendergast Ave., and additional spaces are across the street in the lot of Christ First United Methodist Church.

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