Pratt Center
October 17, 2012
Ron Shiffman Receives 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership
Ron Shiffman, founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development
On October 11, 2012, The Rockefeller Foundation President, Judith Rodin announced: Ron Shiffman, the founder of the Pratt Center for Community Development, is the recipient of the 2012 Jane Jacobs Medal for Lifetime Leadership. The medal recognizes his lifetime of achievement and leadership in promoting community-based activism.
As a student in the early 1960s, Mr. Shiffman, along with Professor George Raymond and others, worked on a study of Bedford-Stuyvesant, anticipating an urban renewal program planned for the neighborhood by the city's planning agencies. In partnership with the community, Shiffman and the Pratt planning school team developed a comprehensive plan to rebuild Bedford-Stuyvesant through economic development programs that became a model for the creation of community development corporations today. Mr. Shiffman’s work in Bedford-Stuyvesant inspired him and Prof. Raymond to found the Pratt Center in 1964. The Center is proud to carry on his legacy through its efforts to create a more equitable New York City.
This announcement comes parallel to the recent publication of Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation for Public Space and the launch of the Democracy, Equity and Public Space initiative on which Mr. Shiffman is a lead editor and organizer. Democracy, Equity and Public Space is a collaborative initiative to promote discourse on public spaces as hubs for civic and political engagement through the publication of Beyond Zuccotti Park and through a national program of public forums, exhibits, and public policy advocacy. For more information on the book and the collaborative initiative,click here.
The Rockefeller Foundation Jane Jacobs Medal was created in 2007 to honor the author and activist who died in April 2006 at the age of 89. Along with the medal, each recipient will receive a cash award. Mr. Shiffman will donate $50,000 of his award to the New York Communituy Trust and $25,000 to The Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Enfironment.
The Pratt Center congratulates Mr. Shiffman on this well deserved recognition. We are tremendously proud to continue to build on his legacy of leadership in the continued struggle for equity.