Wilson Goode, son of a sharecropper and the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, and Martha Franck Rollins, a white antique dealer in Richmond, Virginia, whose family built the local country club, have more in common than you might think.

Both are over 60. Both are reaching out to the faith-based community to help those whose lives have been derailed by time in prison. Both see their current work as the most important and meaningful work they have ever done. And both are winners of the Purpose Prize, a new award for social innovators over 60 launched by Civic Ventures and funded jointly by the John Templeton Foundation and Atlantic Philanthropies.

As the first of 77 million baby boomers turn 60 this year, the Purpose Prize aims to illuminate the possibilities of a new stage of life — between the end of midlife careers and the beginning of true old age — and create a new definition of success in later life, one based on purposeful work. To that end, Civic Ventures opened nominations last fall looking for those 60-plus who are using their creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial talents to help solve serious social problems in the United States. More than 1,500 people responded.

After months of review and input from more than 30 experts in social innovation and the nonprofit sector, 15 finalists were chosen to win $10,000 each. Recently, the list of 15 was sent to a panel of 21 judges including actor Sidney Poitier, Harvard professor and former Presidential advisor David Gergen, Leadership Network founder Bob Buford, commentator Cokie Roberts, former Paramount executive Sherry Lansing, business entrepreneur Jeffrey Taylor and General Eric K. Shinseki, former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. The judges, noting how tough it was to choose, selected the final five $100,000 winners.

Wilson Goode is one of the $100,000 winners. Perhaps best known as a two-term mayor of Philadelphia, Goode now runs Amachi a nonprofit that provides mentors to the children of incarcerated parents. The problem was close to his heart — when Goode was 14, his father was sent to jail for assaulting his mother. The solution was just as personal. Goode paired a proven intervention — mentoring — with a faith-based recruitment strategy. He rallied pastors in predominantly African American communities, who then encouraged their congregants to serve as mentors. Today more than 240 programs in 48 states are affiliated or inspired by Amachi — a Nigerian Ibo word that means “who knows but what God has brought us through this child.” Mentors have helped more than 30,000 children of incarcerated parents. Without intervention, experts suggest, 70 percent of these children would follow their parents to jail.

“I achieved many successful things as mayor,” Goode, 67, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “but beyond success is a state in life, finding real purpose beyond any titles, and getting real, true meaning out of what you’re doing. That’s my definition of significance.”
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/finalists/goode.cfm

The other four $100,000 winners are:

Conchy Bretos, 60 (Miami, FL), who was the driving force behind the nation’s first public housing project — the Helen Sawyer building in Miami — to bring assisted living services to older adults who just need a little help to stay in their homes. Today she runs a consulting company that has helped 40 public housing projects in a dozen states providing such services to their residents.
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/finalists/bretos.cfm
Marilyn Gaston, 67, and Gayle Porter, 60 (Bethesda, MD), who decided to leave public health careers to find new ways to reduce the disproportionately high rate of preventable deaths among African American women. In 2003 they created Prime Time Sister Circles — part health course on exercise, nutrition and stress, and part support group — to change how African American women approach their own health, and thus the health of their families and communities. Meetings, which take place in convenient community locations, encourage goal-setting, peer support, and empowerment.
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/finalists/gaston-porter.cfm
Judea Pearl, 69, and Akbar Ahmed, 63 (Los Angeles, CA and Washington, DC), who linked their life stories — Pearl is the father of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, murdered by terrorists; Ahmed is a professor of Islamic studies — to a larger call for reconciliation. They now offer regular forums for Jews and moderate Muslims in the U.S. to gather and find common ground.
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/finalists/pearl-ahmed.cfm
Charles Dey, 75 (Lyme, CT), who created Start on Success, a National Organization on Disability program to provide paid internships and assign workplace mentors to predominantly minority high school students with physical, mental and emotional disabilities. To date more than 1,500 disabled high school students have had internships at universities, hospitals and small businesses in five cities. So far 85 percent of them have gone on to full-time jobs or further education.
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/finalists/dey.cfm

Martha Rollins is one of the $10,000 winners. While building her antique business, she became painfully aware of the disconnect between the people of privilege entering the front of her shop and the people in poverty living behind it. As Rollins explains, “I thought, how can God use an antiques dealer?”

In 2001, she created Boaz & Ruth to help some of the 200 people released from prison each week in the Richmond area, spur commercial rehabilitation in a crime-ridden neighborhood, and form healing cross-cultural bridges in the racially divided city. Today Boaz & Ruth maintains a used furniture store, a café and catering operation, a furniture restoration business, a home repair and furniture moving enterprise, and eBay sales — all to provide jobs and job training for ex-convicts, revitalization for the neighborhood and revenue to run the program. Of the 50 who have entered the program so far, 22 have found full-time jobs. Only five have been reincarcerated — that’s a 10 percent recidivism rate, compared to the statewide rate of 30 percent.

The other nine $10,000 winners are:

Frank Brady, 63 (Paterson, NJ), who is improving children’s access to healthcare through technology;
Robert Chambers, 61 (Lebanon, NH), who is providing low-interest car loans to the rural poor;
Bernard Flynn, 71 (Sacramento, CA), who is restoring river ecosystems for sustainable flood control and habitat preservation;
Benjamin Hooks, 81 (Memphis, TN), who is preventing childhood exposure to lead poisoning;
Dagney Jochem, 64 (Raleigh, NC), who is bringing HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care to rural minorities;
James Ketelsen, 75 (Houston, TX), who is helping disadvantaged youth to graduate high school and enroll in college;
Suzanne Mintz, 60 (Kensington, MD), who is giving a voice to America’s family caregivers;
June Simmons, 64 (San Fernando, CA), who is creating, implementing and evaluating new ways of delivering health care; and
Herb Sturz, 75 (New York, NY), who is expanding after-school care and tapping older adults for community service.

However compelling these individual stories are, most important is the overall trend they illustrate, which the Wall Street Journal calls “the emergence of innovative altruism among older Americans.” Right now, Purpose Prize winners are leading the parade by creating solutions instead of waiting for opportunities. But there are millions of other Americans in the second half of life who are searching for meaningful work, looking for jobs in education, health care, social services and the nonprofit sector — and not finding them. Our next task is to make sure employers in these fields and sectors see the tremendous pool of social and human capital there — and make room. The result for individuals and society could be a win-win of staggering proportions.

Links of Interest
For more information please go to:: www.purposeprize.org; www.civicventures.org

Marc Freedman is president and founder of Civic Ventures and author of Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America.

Asking The Big Questions

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a catalyst for scientific discovery on what scientists and philosophers call the ‘Big Questions,’ ranging from the laws of nature to the nature of creativity. The following are examples of current research grants:

How does purpose promote human flourishing?

The foundation's mandate includes supporting research and dissemination on how noble purpose can inspire people to invest their lives not simply spend them. Our current research spans the spectrum from adolescents to "prime-timers."

Prof William Damon, director of Stanford's Center on Adolescence, is leading an investigation into the sources and significance of youth purpose. He writes that "the future of any society depends upon the character and competence of its young. In order to develop character and competence, young people need guidance to provide them with direction and a sense of purpose."
www.stanford.edu/group/adolescent.ctr/
The Purpose Prize is designed to inspire adults in their "encore careers" to dedicate themselves to remarkable causes. It's another form of investing that has remarkable payoffs.
www.leadwithexperience.org/prize/

To subscribe to any of the Foundation’s various free e-mail newsletters, including Milestones, go to our JTF Newsletter Subscriptions page.

Milestones is a publication of the John Templeton Foundation.

Purpose Prize Winners‘Change the World’

Finding Meaning After Midlife

Asking The Big Questions

Purpose Prize Winners
‘Change the World’