We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

We’ve changed our name from Encore.org to CoGenerate! Join us at cogenerate.org to bridge generational divides and co-create the future.

AARP’s Jane Pauley didn’t mince words on this morning’s Your Life Calling segment on NBC’s Today show.

Jenny Bowen, she said, had no child development expertise, no foreign policy experience and no knowledge of the Chinese language when she set out to radically change the quality of care for the nation’s 800,000 orphans, 95 percent of whom are girls.

In the years since then, Bowen has established a partnership with the Chinese government to train thousands of child care workers across the country to, as Pauley says, “bring the love of family to children who don’t have families.”

It’s a remarkable story (Today show co-host Matt Lauer says he loved it!). For her extraordinary contributions in an encore career, Bowen won The Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Innovation, sponsored by AARP, in 2011.

This year, five more people over 60 will win The Purpose Prize and $100,000 each. Maybe it’ll be someone you know. Nominate here.

The Purpose Prize is run by Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, and funded by the John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies.

Pauley said Bowen “still dreams big.” Here’s hoping you do, too.

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