Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Despite the ongoing drumbeat of generational conflict (a hate story), right in front of us is evidence of a new narrative of cross-generational connection and collaboration (a love story).  That love story was on full display at the Grammys, most visibly in the Tracy...

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Beatty Brasch

Center for People in Need
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008

Helping needy families with merchandise and legislative action.

In her early 60s after 13 years as executive director of a local community action agency. Beatty Brasch decided she could not retire as long as “the inequities of life” persisted. She founded The Center for People in Need (CFPN) in 2003 to bring consumer goods, transportation, job opportunities and legislative advocacy to disadvantaged families. Brasch devised a “Truckloads of Help” program to centralize donated goods acquisition and distribution so that more than 225 nonprofit agencies in Nebraska can “shop” for their clients at no charge. Her Center for People in Need also advocates systemic change in assistance programs through the state legislature, provides job training for welfare-to-work clients, and facilitates statewide collaborations among other agencies. The “Truckloads of Help” program now provides $22 million in merchandise annually to needy Nebraska families. CFPN distributes 800,000 pounds of food to 12,000 disadvantaged families every year, runs a Legislative Resources Database of 20,000 advocates to help them mobilize on state policy issues, and provides food vouchers and holiday gifts for underserved children. “I wanted to make a difference for as many children and families as I could, [though] I was 62 years old at the time, and I recall my husband, John, lovingly reminded me, ‘Your runway isn’t getting any longer.’ I was determined to ‘take off’ no matter what the odds.”