Friendships are finally getting their due. Once relegated to a distant third position after life partners and children, a spate of new books are spotlighting the importance of friends. And research shows that people with close friends are healthier – both emotionally...
Purpose Prize
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An Intergenerational Approach to Getting Families Housed in Santa Barbara
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Utilizing Faith-Owned Land to Strengthen Intergenerational Community in Seattle
E.N. West is the co-founder and lead organizer of the Faith Land Initiative of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, one of 10 awardees of the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity. Watch for interviews with all 10 of these innovators bringing older and...
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Dana Dakin
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008
Microlending integrated with education and healthcare to alleviate poverty in Ghana.
At age 60, after a successful career in investment marketing, Dana Dakin was ready to hold to the maxim that life is lived in thirds: first you learn, then you earn, then you return. So in 2003, she traveled to Ghana, a country she studied as an undergraduate, to find a village and start a microlending program. Dakin traveled to Pokuase, a town in the outskirts of Ghana’s capital Accra, then launched a microlending program to fuel entrepreneurship and economic development. By establishing relationships with women clients, she began addressing the root causes of poverty. Women’s Trust initiated a scholarship program to keep girls in school; this proved to be the key to lasting change. Additionally, Dakin integrated volunteer nurses into healthcare clinics to improve the maternal mortality outcome. In the first five years, WomensTrust has more than 1,000 loan clients who benefit from business skills training; more than 100 girls on scholarships; medical clinics that partner with local professional nurses; and an on-the-ground hub for other nonprofits and volunteers. “I saw what one individual could do in an international location with extreme need. I made a mental commitment then to make age 60 the point in time to begin the third phase of my life.”