I’ve heard the question so many times from people interested in cogenerational programming: “Are young people really going to show up to connect with older people?” We know, from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022, that...
Purpose Prize
The Latest from CoGenerate
Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within
For the past five years, I’ve been working as an advocate for the causes I believe in and for more intergenerational collaboration. Young people like me want more opportunities to work across generations for change, but we also want to be treated as equals. To...
What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies
We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change. In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...
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Jane Wholey
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008
Helping students displaced by Hurricane Katrina lead the city in reinventing their schools
A professional media consultant, Jane Wholey had long been frustrated by New Orleans’ dismal school system, where 75 percent of 8th graders scored “below basic” in English and ten superintendents had passed through in ten years. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Wholey interviewed middle-school children back in town after a year’s displacement who spoke in awe of amenities in good schools elsewhere. Wholey founded Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools to publicize their stories and generate action to rebuild a better New Orleans school system. Wholey saw that children’s innocent amazement at schools with clean toilets could get media attention and shame officials into action. In 2006, at age 59, she formed Rethink, a collaboration of planners, architects, artists, educators and media experts, to help marginalized youth lead the city in ‘rethinking’ public schools. The children told a news conference that schools they had attended outside New Orleans had enough chairs for everyone to sit simultaneously; libraries with books; and lockers. Then they described what the schools of their dreams would be like. Media publicized the students’ innocent yet hard-hitting presentation, and busy professionals in different disciplines were inspired to work together across race and culture. The superintendent responded by repairing 300 school bathrooms and committed to opening Rethink Clubs in all 23 of the elementary and middle schools. “I will own up to some deep fears about taking on this job. But in the end, my rationale is simple: Why not?”