1. Kimberly Ann Bobo was born on 1954 and is an American religious and workers' rights activist, and current executive director of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, a non-partisan advocacy coalition based in Richmond, Virginia.
21 Facts About Kim Bobo
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Kim Bobo wrote a book on faith-based organizing entitled Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing.
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Kim Bobo moved to Virginia from Chicago, where she founded and served as executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, the nation's largest network of people of faith engaging in local and national actions to improve wages, benefits, and conditions for workers.
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Kim Bobo has written books and articles on wage issues and community organizing.
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Kim Bobo later received a master's degree in economics from the New School for Social Research in New York.
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Kim Bobo is married to David Orr, a long-time Chicago reform politician.
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Kim Bobo has twin sons from her previous marriage to Stephen Coats, who died in 2013.
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Kim Bobo is a member of Wesley United Methodist Church in Richmond, where she sings in the choir.
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Kim Bobo served as the choir director at Good News Community Church for 27 years.
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In 1976, Kim Bobo became director of organizing for Bread for the World, a Christian organization that works to relieve and combat hunger.
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Kim Bobo left Bread for the World in 1986 and became an instructor at the Midwest Academy, a community organizing training institute in Chicago, Illinois.
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Kim Bobo focused on low-income housing organizations and other social change organizations.
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In 1989, Kim Bobo became involved with the Pittston Coal strike by coal miners at Pittston Coal.
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Kim Bobo started an informal network of religious leaders to share information about campaigns for worker justice that year.
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In 1991, Kim Bobo founded the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues.
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In 1996, using a $5,000 inheritance from her grandmother, Kim Bobo launched the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice.
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In 2017, Kim Bobo became Executive Director for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, in Richmond, Virginia where she has led many economic, racial, social, and environmental justice legislative victories.
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Kim Bobo mobilized a historic faith advocacy campaign and played a leadership role in the statewide Healthcare for All Virginians coalition advocating Medicaid expansion, which passed in 2018.
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Kim Bobo publicized the findings of "The High Cost of Being Poor in Virginia," a report released in October 2016 by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and the Coalition on Human Needs.
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Kim Bobo was selected for the 2012 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award.
21.
Kim Bobo joins previous award recipients including Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr.