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A cosmetics industry executive applies his business know-how
to rehabilitating prisoners -- and now spends most of his
time on Riker's Island. A world-class mountaineer led a
team of women up Annapurna -- and now leads an effort to
keep toxics out of household products. And an immigrant
who arrived with six dollars in his pocket helps send Latino
students to college -- with money raised from his fellow
gardeners in California.
The 15 recipients of the 2008 Purpose Prize – six $100,000
winners and nine $10,000 winners -- are taking on some of
society's biggest challenges, from poverty to pollution
and from health care to homelessness. They are also demonstrating
that social innovation can spring from an unexpected source:
experienced adults over 60.
The Purpose Prize, now in its third year, is the nation's
only large-scale investment in social innovators in the
second half of life.
>>Meet
the 2008 Purpose Prize Winners
>>Read the press release
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What's New |
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At the heart of the Encore Careers Campaign are the
stories of those finding work that matters in the second
half of life. The new look of Encore.org highlights the
two essential elements of those encore journeys: Then
and Now.
Then was what you did earlier ; Now
is what you're doing, or hope to do, in your encore career.
Between Then and Now is a semicolon, the pause that represents
the transition, the time to rest, reflect and retool
for a new stage of life and work
>>Read more
>>Check out Encore.org's new look |
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Nonprofits
face an unprecedented leadership deficit, as a wave of
retirements hits just as social needs are exploding.
The Silicon Valley Encore Initiative helps recently retired
or soon-to-be-retired corporate employees transition
to their encore careers. The initiative is one of several
pilots testing paid encore fellowships as a way to steer
talented leaders to the social sector.
"We thought it was a terrific idea - one worth
writing about and one worth emulating," said Jeff
Chu, senior editor at Fast Company, which named the initiative
one of the magazine's "Social Enterprises of the Year.
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>>Read
more
>>More about the Silicon Valley Encore Initiative |
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As a veteran
journalist, Lynne Curry can spot a trend. With the new
category of "green-collar jobs" growing fast
despite the economic slowdown, Curry earned a credential
as a green building specialist.
Politicians and entrepreneurs alike herald green jobs
as the cure for the economy and the environment. And
the new green economy is creating a host of encore career
opportunities as well.
>>Read
more
>>More Encore advice
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Think Globally |
| This year's Purpose Prize winners for the first time
include Americans working abroad, such as Nasrine
Gross, who is fostering literacy in Afghanistan,
and Jock Brandis, whose mechanical peanut-sheller
is raising the income of African farmers.
Equally striking, however, is the global vision of those
honored for their work in the U.S. Joseph James is "greening" rural
black South Carolina and reaching out to
communities in Liberia. Barbara Cervone is
applying lesson from her work with inner-city youth to
empower high school students from China to Tanzania. Michele
McRae is helping refugees from 42 countries adapt
to North Dakota, where the population is 90 percent white.
These social innovators are breaking boundaries, not only
of age and expectations, but of national borders and identity.
In an increasingly interconnected world, that is a purpose
certainly worthy of a prize.
--David Bank
Editor, Encore.org |
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