In Houston, clergy put The Metropolitan Organization on the map by organizing a prayer service with over 1,500 participants in support of comprehensive immigration reform, and then getting the New York Times to cover its July 4th all-clergy pulpit teaching on the topic. Judicatory leaders from every major religious denomination in Houston urged their clergy to participate in this effort, with widespread results. Since then, TMO leaders committed to turning out 51,000 voters this fall in support of a nonpartisan family-oriented agenda that includes immigration reform.

In the face of a tsunami of foreclosures in the San Fernando Valley and South Central LA, One LA-IAF organized homeowners into negotiations with banks and crafted a unique solution involving shared sacrifice on the part of homeowners, the banks and the public.

In San Antonio, COPS/ Metro Alliance succeeded in getting their city council to adopt a resolution opposing Arizona's immigration law and communicating to Texas state legislators that such a law would not be tolerated in San Antonio.

Over 500 participating delegates pledged institutional dues this year with an additional funds leveraged from local businesses. This was the last assembly as a sponsoring committee, which started as an African American Baptist group and transformed itself into a diverse collective of a wide array of institutions.

Even as Louisiana was still recovering from Katrina, Hurricanes Rita and Ike battered the Texas Gulf Coast, leading TMO to establish Gulf Coast Interfaith as an institution to tackle post-hurricane issues.

Not only did the effort result in the replacement of hundreds of roofs of the lowest-income families, leaders also ensured that recovery funds went to the counties that needed them the most --  thus increasing recovery funds for low-income and elderly families devastated by the storms.

Click here for 2009 Texas Houser Award.