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| Susan Burton , A New Way of Life Reentry Project |
| Watch a video of Susan Burton |
| Visit A New Way of Life Reentry Project's website |
| Contact Susan Burton |
A New Way of Life Reentry Project
Purpose Prize Winner 2012
At 46 years old, Susan Burton didn’t have a lot going for her. It was 1997. She was fresh out of jail, and not for the first time. On her way out the prison guard said, “I’ll see you back in a little while.”
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| Bhagwati Agrawal , Sustainable Innovations Inc. |
| Watch a video of Bhagwati Agrawal |
| Visit Sustainable Innovations Inc.'s website |
| Contact Bhagwati Agrawal |
Sustainable Innovations Inc.
Purpose Prize Winner 2012
Stopping on a dusty, unpaved village street in northwest India’s Rajasthan in 2007, Bhagwati (B.P.) Agrawal saw children excitedly running around calling, “Pani aagayaa.” They were alerting everyone that the water tanker had arrived with its twice-a-month delivery. Women appeared carrying clay pots to collect what they could of a life-sustaining resource continually in short supply.
Founder
Give Children A Choice
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 2000, after his kids left home, financial executive Dori Shimoda revived a promise he had made to himself nearly 20 years earlier, after he survived an 18-hour kidnapping at gunpoint: to help others. Searching for a way, he backpacked around Southeast Asia.
As he explored the remote villages along Laos’ countryside, Shimoda was struck by how many children, especially girls, weren’t in school. Instead they looked after younger siblings and did domestic chores. Preschools were virtually nonexistent.
Vice President
The Conservation Fund
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 1990, Mikki Sager was a midcareer administrative assistant looking to make an impact. A year later she co-created the Resourceful Communities Program, which brings together community leaders, grassroots groups, government agencies, land trusts and others to create businesses and jobs in rural North Carolina that protect the landscape and move people out of poverty.
A division of the nonprofit Conservation Fund, the Resourceful Communities Program provides planning, research, organizational development, fundraising and other technical assistance.
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| Nancy Morgans-Ferguson , Shalom Free Clinic |
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Shalom Free Clinic
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
Nancy Morgans-Ferguson had recently retired from a 30-year career in pharmaceutical and medical sales when one day in 2005 a homeless woman knocked on the door of her church in Chico, Calif. The woman asked for a glass of water, but she needed much more: She had mental and physical issues, but she feared the emergency room.
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| Carlos LeGerrette and Linda LeGerrette , Cesar Chavez Service Clubs |
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| Contact Carlos LeGerrette |
| Contact Linda LeGerrette |
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Cesar Chavez Service Clubs
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 2000, when California created Cesar Chavez Day to honor the labor activist and founder of United Farm Workers of America, then-governor Gray Davis asked social policy advisers Carlos and Linda LeGerrette for ideas for activities. The San Diego natives had worked with Chavez for 12 years, beginning as idealistic college students in 1966.
Co-founder and Board President
Second Wind Fund
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 2002, Colorado family therapist Marjorie Laird learned that four teens at the high school next door to her church had committed suicide in just nine months of each other. Their deaths reflected a grim reality: Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Colorado youths. (Car crashes are the first.) And there are few mental health resources for low-income teens.
Founder and CEO
Wheels of Success
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
Years ago, when Susan Jacobs escaped an abusive relationship, she had to leave her home and car behind. The limited public transportation in Florida’s Tampa Bay area, where she lived, made it hard to get to and from work every day.
Co-founder and Director
Healthpoint Services
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 2009, the year he turned 66, Allen Hammond already had a global reputation as a writer, editor, policy analyst and nongovernmental program manager. He was one of the pioneers of the “base of the pyramid” concept, which suggests that the world’s 4 billion poor people are viable consumers.
Founder and Director
The River Food Pantry
Purpose Prize Fellow 2012
In 2000, Andy Czerkas and his wife, Jenny, began volunteering in low-income and senior housing complexes in Madison, Wisc., neighborhoods marked by poverty. Czerkas was motivated by religious faith and a sense of service that dated back more than 25 years, when – upon breaking free from alcoholism – he made a commitment to help others.
Czerkas and his wife worked with the neighborhoods to provide free monthly dinners, threw back-to-school parties and organized holiday gift programs. But it wasn’t enough. Families routinely had to choose between paying rent or buying food.
