Remarks prepared for delivery.

Good afternoon, and welcome to FBI Headquarters. It is my privilege to be here today to honor all of you—our partners and our friends—for the hard work you do each and every day to improve our communities across the nation.

I would also like to welcome the friends and family members of our honorees who also have joined us today. Your support plays an important role in the success of these remarkable individuals.

For more than two decades, we at the FBI have presented the Director’s Community Leadership Awards to extraordinary citizens from around the country. Each year, we discover that the accomplishments we recognize are as diverse as the communities you serve.

However, you all share the same vision for our nation’s future—one of hope, peace, and justice.

You also share a willingness to lead—a willingness to step up and to step forward—when countless others instead choose to take a back seat.

One needs only to open a newspaper, browse the web, or turn on a television to be bombarded with reports of crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence. But through your efforts, and making real progress, many of your communities are confronting these challenges head-on.

You are educating your fellow citizens about crimes against children, religious and cultural diversity, and the pain of social and racial injustice.

You are helping law enforcement, including us, fight consumer fraud and teaching businesses about cyber security.

You are combating gang violence and human trafficking. You are offering a helping hand to the less fortunate and making it possible for disadvantaged young men and women to attend college.

In some cases, your efforts were inspired by personal tragedy. Others of you were motivated by neighborhood violence or by the poverty and the pain of your fellow citizens.

But the underlying reasons that caused you to take action and to lead are the same—you sought a safer world for our children, neighborhoods free from crime and violence, and a nation that continues to defend the freedoms we all cherish.

We in the FBI share those goals. But we know that we cannot achieve them alone. We succeed when we work alongside our partners.

Through your experience and your expertise, you are building bridges between the FBI and the communities we both serve. And in doing so, you are helping us fight crime and terrorism. You are helping us keep your communities safer.

Robert Kennedy once said, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”

Each one of you has sent forward those tiny ripples of hope. Whether you are part of a large organization or whether you volunteer your individual time and talent, you are shaping history and making a lasting impact on those around you.

Indeed, you are the catalysts for change in your communities.

Thank you for being here today. Thank you for your commitment and your leadership. Above all, thank you for your partnership and your friendship. It is a privilege and an honor to serve beside you.

God bless.

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