Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, announced that Jay P. Davidson is one of the 15 winners of its 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.
Davidson, of The Healing Place, will receive $10,000 for his work to provide addiction recovery for homeless men and women. The Prize consists of six $100,000 awards and nine $10,000 awards.
"This recognition," Davidson says, "reaffirms that the true joy in life comes from helping people and that when we help others, it comes back to us a hundred-fold. It also puts our vision of sharing the program model into the national spotlight."
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 theSecond Half of Life. "It's reassuring to note that as America ages, we have creativity in greater abundance. Purpose Prize winners such as Jay
Davidson show that experience and innovation can go hand in hand, that inventiveness is not the sole province of the young."
Davidson's work with alcoholics and addicts has literally saved thousands of lives. Men and women that had once given up all hope of recovery have been restored to productive lives, reunited with their families, and contributing in their local communities.
Summaries of all winners, as well as videos and photographs, are online at www.purposeprize.org <http://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 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.
