First-Ever Award for Entrepreneurship in Second Half of Life an Investment
in What Innovators Plan to Do Next
Inaugural Summit at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Sept. 7-9, to
Focus on Role of Experience in Creating Innovative, Lasting Change
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Civic Ventures, a think tank and
program incubator helping society achieve the greatest return on
experience, today announced the five winners of its first-ever Purpose
Prize, a major new initiative to invest in Americans over 60 who are
leading a new age of social innovation. Each winner will receive $100,000,
the first significant investment in this undiscovered force for the greater
good. (Two prizes will be shared by pairs of co-winners.)
The Purpose Prize winners are using their experience and
entrepreneurial skills to help solve long-standing problems, including
intolerance, racial disparities in preventable deaths, job opportunities
for the disabled, housing needs of the elderly poor, and the disrupted
lives of millions of children who have a parent in jail.
"It's conventional wisdom that young people drive entrepreneurialism
and innovation, but the Purpose Prize winners turn that outdated notion on
its head," said Marc Freedman, founder and President of Civic Ventures.
"These inspiring men and women illustrate an emerging trend in our society,
as millions of aging Americans turn their experience and passion for change
into meaningful work in the second half of life."
Seventy older social innovators -- the top five percent of the 1,200
Purpose Prize applicants -- have been invited to participate in a "Purpose
Prize Innovation Summit," September 7-9, at Stanford University in Palo
Alto, California. The event is cosponsored by Civic Ventures and the
Stanford Graduate School of Business' Center on Social Innovation, one of
the world's leading academic centers focused on social entrepreneurship.
At the Summit, social innovators can learn from presenters and one
another, build a network that will link and support innovators working in
the second half of life, discuss ideas with funders and venture
philanthropists, and explore how individual efforts can create a wave of
social innovation that could transform America.
The five Purpose Prize winners and 10 finalists can also apply for
support of their work from Civic Ventures' new million-dollar Fund for
Innovation. Two foundations, The Atlantic Philanthropies and The John
Templeton Foundation, provided funding to Civic Ventures for the Prize
program and the new Fund.
"Today's boomers and older Americans are an extraordinary pool of
social and human capital that -- with the right investment -- could yield
unprecedented returns for society," said Freedman. "Instead of being a
lifetime achievement award, the Purpose Prize is an investment in what
these amazing individuals will do next to solve important problems."
The winners -- selected by a jury comprised of 21 leaders in business,
politics, journalism, the arts, and the nonprofit sector -- include:
* Conchy Bretos (age 61, Miami, FL)
Bringing assisted living services to public housing
Born in Cuba and sent to America when Castro came to power, Bretos
lived in a Nebraska orphanage for three years before reuniting with
her parents. As an adult, she worked university and public sector
jobs, then became Florida's Assistant Secretary for Aging and Adult
Services. Appalled to see what poor, older adults endured to avoid
nursing homes, she became the force behind the nation's first public
housing project -- the Helen Sawyer building in Miami -- to bring
assisted-living services to low-income adults who need help to stay
in their homes. Today she runs a consulting company that has helped
40 public housing projects in a dozen states bring assisted-living
services to their residents.
* Charles Dey (age 75, Lyme, CT)
Engaging high school youth with disabilities in the world of work
At 64, Dey had a long career in education and a record of starting
programs to ensure equal educational opportunity. Alan Reich, a
friend who founded the National Organization on Disability after an
accident left him a quadriplegic, told Dey to "do for young people
with disabilities what you did for minorities in the '60s." Dey
created Start on Success, a National Organization on Disability
program providing paid internships and workplace mentors to
predominantly minority high school students with physical, mental
and emotional disabilities. Over 1,500 students have had internships
at universities, hospitals and businesses in five cities, and 85
percent have gone on to full-time jobs or further education. Dey is
working to expand Start on Success, while also building the National
Organization on Disability's efforts to help disabled adults,
including returning veterans, find jobs.
* Marilyn Gaston and Gayle Porter (ages 67 and 60, Bethesda, MD)
Empowering midlife African-American women to improve their health
With African-American women dying at rates greater than any other
group of U.S. women, Gaston and Porter were inspired to stop many of
these preventable deaths. Accomplished health professionals, they
created Prime Time Sister Circles - part support group and part
health course on exercise, nutrition and stress. The meetings,
taking place in convenient locations like churches and community
centers, encourage goal-setting, peer support and empowerment to
change how African-American women approach their health and the
health of their families and communities. Research in four cities
shows that 68 percent of participants maintain improved health.
* W. Wilson Goode, Sr. (age 68, Philadelphia, PA)
Mentoring children of incarcerated parents
In 2000, former Philadelphia Mayor (1984-1992) Wilson Goode earned a
Doctorate of Ministry and became the director of Amachi, a nonprofit
helping the 7 million children who have one or both parents in jail,
on parole or under supervision. Goode, whose own father went to jail
for assaulting his mother when Goode was 14, paired mentoring with
faith-based recruiting. He rallied pastors in African-American
communities to encourage their congregants to be mentors. Today more
than 240 programs in 48 states are affiliated or inspired by Amachi,
and mentors have helped 30,000 children. Without intervention,
experts predict that as many as 70 percent of children with
incarcerated parents would end up in jail.
* Judea Pearl and Akbar Ahmed (ages 70 and 63, Los Angeles and
Washington, D.C.)
Fighting intolerance, conflict and terrorism through dialogue and
exchange
After terrorists murdered his son, Wall Street Journal reporter
Daniel Pearl, Judea Pearl, a computer science professor at UCLA,
teamed up with Akbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic Studies and envoy
to Muslims in the U.S. and abroad. The two travel the country to
speak and lead dialogues on religious tolerance, linking their
stories to a call for reconciliation and providing a rare forum for
moderate Muslims in the U.S. Dialogue is central to the work of the
Daniel Pearl Foundation, which sponsors fellowships for journalists
and an Internet news service for high school journalists, advocates
press freedom, and organizes world music days to bring diverse
people together.
Meet the 2006 Purpose Prize winners in their first-ever public
appearance as a group, presented by the Case Foundation via live Webcast on
September 7 at 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT. Registration is open to the public.
To register, go to http://www.CaseFoundationWebcasts.org/PurposePrize.
About Civic Ventures
Civic Ventures is a think tank and program incubator working to help
society achieve the greatest return on experience. To learn more, visit
http://www.CivicVentures.org. For more information about The Purpose Prize and the
winners, visit http://www.LeadWithExperience.org.
For more information, contact:
Jessica Nusbaum or Anne Purdy, 415-901-0111
jnusbaum@fenton.com
SOURCE Civic Ventures
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Related links:
http://www.CivicVentures.org
http://www.LeadWithExperience.org
CONTACT:
Jessica Nusbaum or Anne Purdy,
+1-415-901-0111, or jnusbaum@fenton.com, for Civic Ventures
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