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Rev. Nelson and Mrs. Joyce Johnson Receive Purpose Prize Award
by the Beloved Community Center
Dec. 3, 2008
For Immediate Media Release. Please see attached document for additional contact information.
Greensboro, NC Rev. Nelson and Mrs. Joyce Johnson Awarded 2008 Purpose Prize for Innovation,
Extraordinary Social Contribution in Encore Career, After Age 60
SAN FRANCISCO — Civic Ventures (www.civicventures.org), a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, announced that Rev. Nelson and Mrs. Joyce Johnson were one group of 15 winners of the 2008 Purpose Prize, a three-year, $9 million program for people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. 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.
Rev. Nelson and Mrs. Joyce Johnson of the Beloved Community Center in Greensboro, NC will receive $10,000 for their work to bring truth, reconciliation, and healing to a city torn by its past, and to ensure civil and human rights and dignity to those presently faced with the adversities of poverty and injustice. The Prize consists of six $100,000 awards and nine $10,000 awards.
On winning the prize Rev. Johnson said, “If we as a community can actually embrace a vision and set of principles to which we are faithful, then that is our victory in life.” Rev. and Mrs. Johnson both envision continuing the work of truth and reconciliation and facilitating that process around the country, as well as engaging in a movement of social justice that moves the community beyond disparities and further into the manifestation of what Martin Luther King Jr. conceived as the “Beloved Community”.
Winners are chosen from more than 1,000 nominees for their creative and effective work tackling problems ranging from poverty to pollution, recidivism to racial reconciliation, health care to homelessness. For the first time, Americans doing work abroad were also eligible to win.
“In tough economic times, we need more creative solutions to long-standing social problems,” said Marc Freedman, co-founder of The Purpose Prize and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. “It’s reassuring to note that as America ages, we have creativity in greater abundance. Purpose Prize winners such as Nelson and Joyce show that experience and innovation can go hand in hand, that inventiveness is not the sole province of the young.”
The “Greensboro Massacre” of November 3, 1979 resulted in the death of five community and labor organizers at the hand of Ku Klux Klan and Nazi party members. The Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission was established to facilitate a process that would bring forth truth, understanding, and healing so that the Greensboro community would not be permanently paralyzed. The Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission was the first of its kind in the country and is the foundation of much of the deeper work that must be done to heal a city and ultimately challenge a nation to wrestle with its past as well as embrace its present, and move with clarity into the future.
Summaries of all winners, as well as videos and photographs, are online at www.purposeprize.org.
Sherry Lansing, CEO of the Sherry Lansing Foundation and former chair of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, chairs the jury that selected this year’s winners. The 23 judges are leaders in business, politics, journalism and the nonprofit sector — including actor Sidney Poitier, former presidential advisor David Gergen, former Senator Harris Wofford and journalist Cokie Roberts.
The Purpose Prize is part of the Encore Careers campaign (www.encore.org), which aims to engage millions of boomers in encore careers, which combine social impact, personal meaning and continued income in the second half of life — and produce a windfall of human talent to solve society’s most pressing issues.
The Purpose Prize is part of the Encore Careers campaign (www.encore.org), which aims to engage millions of boomers in encore careers, which combine social impact, personal meaning and continued income in the second half of life — and produce a windfall of human talent to solve society’s most pressing issues.
The Purpose Prize award ceremonies this year will kick off the first-ever Encore Careers Summit on December 5-7 at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business’ Center on Social Innovation, one of the world’s leading academic centers focused on social entrepreneurship.
An invitation-only event, more than 450 people will attend the Summit, including Purpose Prize winners and Fellows, hundreds of others in encore careers, and leaders in education, government, business, philanthropy, and public policy. The goal is to launch a movement of those in the second half of life who want to use longer, healthier lives for social good.
Funding for The Purpose Prize comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation. Additional funding for the Summit comes from AARP, Erickson Companies, the New York Life Foundation, Hewlett-Packard Company and Legacy Works.
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About the Beloved Community Center
The Beloved Community Center (www.belovedcommunitycenter.org) is committed to fostering and modeling a spirit of community based on Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of a "Beloved Community." In this spirit, we envision and work toward social and economic relations that affirm and realize the equality, dignity, worth and potential of every person.
About Civic Ventures
Civic Ventures (www.civicventures.org) is a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.
About The Atlantic Philanthropies
The Atlantic Philanthropies (www.atlanticphilanthropies.org) are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Their work is aimed at ageing, disadvantaged children and youth, population health, and reconciliation and human rights.
About the John Templeton Foundation
The John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org) serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in the areas engaging life’s biggest questions. These questions range from explorations into the laws of nature and the universe to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity.