Hughes Wins R. E. Jones Award


December 16, 1996

Raleigh, NC: Sandra Spaulding Hughes of Wilmington was named the recipient of the R. E. Jones Award on November 11, at the annual State Cooperative Extension Conference in Raleigh.

The R. E. Jones award is presented annually by the North Carolina A&T State University Cooperative Extension Program to an Extension agent or para professional who devotes more than half of their time to serving a limited-resource audience.

Hughes, a family and consumer science Extension agent in New Hanover County, has been with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service for more than 20 years. A native of Whiteville, NC, Hughes specializes in housing, home furnishings, family resource management, consumer education, human development and aging.

In her work with New Hanover County Cooperative Extension, Hughes is a central figure in two major projects, the Willow Pond Family Self-Sufficiency Program and the Wilmington Family Resource Center.

The Willow Pond program began in 1994, and is designed to help families reach self-sufficiency within five years, while they work toward an ultimate goal of becoming homeowners. Families participating in this program learn about such issues as escrow savings, debt reduction, and earnings increases.

The Wilmington Family Resource Center is located in the Bottom neighborhood, a central Wilmington area in which approximately 900 families reside. Hughes was integral in converting this former bar into a "one-stop source of information." The Family Resource Center, which opened in June 1996, has served 3,841 people with 696 programs.

At the Center, Hughes provides instruction in the areas of interior decorating, wills and estate planning, babysitting, parenting, home buying, and clothing construction.

She was named the 1995 New Hanover County Human Relations Commission Educator of the Year, and received a Governor's Award as one of the 101 Distinguished Women of North Carolina. Hughes also produces a home economics segment which airs on Wilmington's WECT-TV 6.

She holds a B.S. in Home Economics from North Carolina A&T State University.

Robert Earl Jones, a former Cooperative Extension director at NC A&T State University, passed away in 1991. Mr. Jones was actively involved in the integration of Extension services during the 1960s, and was the first African American to be inducted into North Carolina's Agricultural Hall of Fame.

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For more information, please contact Dr. M. Ray McKinnie, NC A&T State University, Cooperative Extension Program, (336) 334-7691.