Joe Wiah, director of the Ethiopian Community Development Council’s Multicultural Community Center in Brattleboro, has been named winner of the 2022 Con Hogan Award for Creative, Entrepreneurial Community Leadership by the Vermont Community Foundation. Wiah will be presented with the award's $15,000 cash prize at a Sept 28 ceremony at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
The Hogan Award, named for the late public policymaker Cornelius "Con" Hogan, recognizes a community leader who shares Hogan's vision of a better Vermont and seizes the responsibility for making that vision real. At ECDC, Wiah coordinates with community organizations, government and individuals to assist refugees with employment, housing, education, medical care and other needs, including integration into community life in southern Vermont.
Wiah grew up in Harper, Liberia, near the southern tip of the West African country, in the midst of civil war. He became a refugee himself for a time, escaping to the Ivory Coast. When he returned to Liberia, his work began to focus on children. He spent seven years with Catholic Charities, working as deputy director of Don Bosco Homes, where he coordinated and supervised programs that led to the disarmament, demobilization, rehabilitation and reintegration of child soldiers.
Wiah was a member of the Child Protection Agencies of Liberia, which assisted with children’s participation in the Truth and Reconciliation process. After coming to the US, he joined the Africa Research Project at the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, where he conducted in-depth research on policies and best practices for supporting abused and exploited children in West Africa.
“The Award Committee was impressed by Joe Wiah’s story, an amazing journey of persistence through setbacks and taking risks in pursuit of a vision,” said committee chair Scott Johnson. “He saw the brutality that war inflicted on child combatants and vowed to dedicate his life to creating peace and helping refugees.”