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
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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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Arthur White
(1924-2014)
Purpose Prize Fellow 2007
Improving the literacy of children of inmates and connecting them to their parents.
Arthur White was a founder of the public opinion research firm Yankelovich, Skelly & White in 1964, Reading is Fundamental in 1966, and Jobs for the Future in 1983. In 2002, spurred by his experience as a member of the Federal Prison Industries Board, White founded Connecting through Literacy Inmates, Children, and Caregivers, a nonprofit that focuses on improving the literacy skills of inmates and their children. With inmates often up to 100 miles from home and infrequently visited by their children, the program uses literacy training, reading and email-based discussions about books as vehicles to improve communications. Its broader goal is to heal strained interpersonal relationships while improving the literacy and job-related computer skills of prison inmates, their children and their caregivers. CLICC’s premise is that the children of inmates can have their learning and growth supported by successful role models (e-mentors) from business and faith-based organizations, who can provide stability and a positive learning experience. It is further committed to providing caregivers with adequate support and the incentives necessary to nurture the social and educational well being of the children under their care. The relationships nurtured through the program will lead to improved literacy skills for inmates and their children, enhance parenting skills, and help to provide additional reentry support. Following completion of a pilot program at the Danbury Federal Correctional Institution in Connecticut, the program will be tested in two Connecticut state prisons and then expanded to other federal and state institutions.