Purpose Prize Innovation Network

Experience Needs to be Part of a Big, Smart and Fair Stimulus Package

David Cohen — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:44:01 -0600

Encore.org member David Cohen, a senior fellow with Experience Corps, contributes this post:

Angela Blackwell, the head of PolicyLink, had a first-rate article in Salon News.

She argued for a big, smart and fair stimulus with a 1% -2% set aside for job training. The stimulus’s package should emphasize meeting urban and rural needs and focus on people and jobs.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

Obama Leading by Modelling and Showing Respect

David Cohen — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:07:52 -0600

On December 17th I posted a comment on a Salon article dealing with Obama’s appointment of Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. The announcement took place at a Chicago elementary school. Obama had a conversation with first to fourth graders.

Here’s what I posted corrected for spelling, grammar and clarity.

The Encore Careers Summit

The Stimulus Package and Encore

David Cohen — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:25:39 -0600

The economic crisis will lead in all probability to two economic stimulus packages. Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff to President-Elect Obama, spoke to an operational hope when he said crises can be turned into opportunities. My hope asks, how can the stimulus packages advance the Encore idea and program?

I want to begin a discussion on www.encore.org based on people’s experiences and ideas. In turn these can be incorporated into the stimulus legislation and its implementation. Here are a few thoughts to get us started.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

GROWING POWER: Recognition of Older Innovators

David Cohen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 12:29:28 -0500

Encore.org member David Cohen, a senior fellow at Experience Corps, contributed this comment:

Choosing Will Allen, the Milwaukee urban farmer, for a MacArthur genius award gave me great pleasure.

I was part of a team at the Advocacy Institute--with key colleagues Sharvell Becton, Laura Chambers, Keiko Koizumi and Kathleen Sheekey-- that worked on the Leadership for a Changing World Program (LCW) in partnership with the Ford Foundation and the Robert Wagner School of Public Service at New York University (NYU).

Our purpose was to award through varieties of recognition, including money, social change leadership that tackled intractable social problems systemically and systematically. Our focus was to find those leaders whose leadership made a difference in people's lives but who were largely unrecognized.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

PURPOSE PRIZE INNOVATION NETWORK: Milestones Project honored by NEA

David Bank — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 16:04:15 -0500

Nearly 10 years ago, Richard and Michele Steckel decided they couldn't sit by and just watch as people all over the world experienced the mayhem of ethnic cleansing, race riots and hatred.

To bridge divides, they sought to chronicle in photographs the humanity shared by all people - a project that led to a traveling exhibit they named "The Milestones Project."

The Steckels, 2007 Purpose Prize fellows, have now been honored by the National Education Association with its "Author-Illustrator Human and Civil Rights Award."

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

THE BIG QUESTIONS: A tribute to Sir John Templeton

Alexandra Kent — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:06:38 -0500

The passing of Sir John Templeton provides an opportunity to reflect on “The Big Questions” that were the focus of his philanthropic work.

Templeton, one of the world’s leading investors and philanthropists, died today in Nassau, Bahamas. He was 95. A native of Tennessee, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1987 for the philanthropic work he pursued in his encore career.

In 2006, the John Templeton Foundation helped establish The Purpose Prize to recognize social innovators over 60 with awards of up to $100,000, and remains a major funder. (The Purpose Prize is a project of Civic Ventures, publisher of Encore.org.)

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

Huffington Post Blog on Encore Careers Needs Your Commentary

Alexandra Kent — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:19:03 -0500

Civic Ventures released a new survey today estimating that between 5.3 and 8.4 million Americans have launched “encore careers,” positions that combine income and personal meaning with social impact and nearly half of those surveyed are interested in finding their encore career.

Read Civic Ventures CEO Marc Freedman’s blog about the report in today’s Huffington Post at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marc-freedman/bill-gates-deserves-an-en_b_....

We’d appreciate it if you could read the post and comment on Marc’s piece directly on the Huffington Post site.

Purpose Prize Innovation Network

ENCORE STORY: Helping heal coal country

Jenny Griffin — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:07:19 -0500

In Appalachian coal country, the underground mines have been shut for decades. But the legacy of coal mining remains in its waterways — and it’s toxic. Streams and ponds gleam from the orange acidic water that fills them, the result of a poisonous discharge of sulfuric acid and iron known as acid mine drainage.

Allan Comp was initially skeptical that much could be done to revitalize the ravaged coal country towns, yet during the past six years the 2007 Purpose Prize Fellow founded an Appalachian Coal Country Watershed Team that has resulted in massive environmental cleanup efforts in eight states by volunteers who have contributed more than 100,000 hours. In the process, they have restored the soul of local communities, too.

Encore Nation

DAVID BROOKS: Entrepreneurs for the public good

Terry Nagel — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:13:01 -0500

J.B. Schramm, founder of College Summit, which partners with school districts to help low-income students through the college application process.

Social entrepreneurship has arrived as a significant public policy tool, according to New York Times columnist David Brooks in today’s piece, “Thoroughly Modern Do-Gooders.

Brooks queues up the next big challenge for social entrepreneurs: “Their problem now is scalability. How do the social entrepreneurs replicate successful programs so that they can be big enough to make a national difference?”

Encore Nation

CHANGEMAKER: Turning 'bad boys' into good men

Jennifer Coate — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:10:53 -0500

Sister Eileen McNerney helps make “good men from bad boys” through hands-on job training and job placement.

McNerney, a 2007 Purpose Prize fellow, recently presented her ideas to participants in Changemakers, a network organized by Ashoka, the pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship. This week, her organization, Taller San Jose was named one of the winners of Ashoka’s Collaborative Changemaker Competition, and will receive a $5,000 Changemaker award.

Taller San Jose was honored for its innovative approach to curbing youth violence through a comprehensive employment program that helps youth “at the edge of crime” or recently incarcerated young people change their behaviors through hands-on job training and placement. More than 90% of previously incarcerated graduates have not re-offended due to the motivating power of paid work.

Encore Nation