Dexter McNamara Receives FBI Community Leadership Award

The Sacramento FBI announced today that Dexter McNamara is the recipient of the 2007 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. The award, given annually, recognizes the achievements of individuals or organizations in the area of drug and violence education and prevention. Mr. McNamara, for the past 13 years, has been the Director of the Interfaith Service Bureau (ISB), an organization dedicated to addressing human needs in the community and fostering greater understanding, acceptance and cooperation among people of different faiths.

The ISB, incorporated in 1920 as the Federation of Churches, eventually became known as the Interfaith Service Bureau in 1978. During his 13 years as Director, Mr. McNamara has seen the religious community in Sacramento grow and change considerably bringing with it the challenges of ministering to the diverse needs of people in the Capital City. Some of the ways the ISB has helped people of different religious backgrounds discover the common call of faith to work for justice, mercy and compassion include: bringing faith groups together to foster understanding and trust; working together to feed, clothe, and house people; providing faith and values programming on the Religious Coalition for Cable Television channel; helping lead local disaster preparedness and response efforts; and working with various programs to help children, youth and families.

Drew Parenti, Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento FBI, said “Dexter McNamara was the first person from the religious community to call and welcome me to Sacramento and he has been a guiding hand for me during my tenure here. He has played an integral role in making our community safer for everyone and has opened many doors for the FBI helping us effectively communicate with the various inter-faith communities in Sacramento. He has been a great partner to the FBI and the work he does is more important now than it ever has been”.

The ISB also works in conjunction with many other programs in the community including: Opening Doors; Building Unity; Habitat for Humanity: the Capital Unity Council; the Child Abuse Prevention Council; WEAVE; the Healthy Marriage Project; California Interfaith Power & Light; and the U.S. Attorney General’s Violence Prevention Task Force.

Dexter McNamara said “It gives me great hope when I see people from many different religious and ethnic/cultural backgrounds and from many different agencies and organizations working together to create a safe, just, healthy and compassionate community.”

The presentation of the award is scheduled for February 27, 2008, 10:00 a.m., and is open to all members of the Media. Please contact Special Agent Steve Dupre if you plan on attending the ceremony.

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