Judy Cockerton of Massachusetts Wins $100,000 Purpose Prize For
Enriching the Lives of Foster Care Children in New and Creative
Ways
Encore.org and AARP recognize the former teacher and toy
store owner with award for people 60 and older who unite
generations
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Judy
Cockerton knows that not all families can bring foster children
into their homes, so she's giving people other ways to help kids
placed in foster care. For her work in changing lives for the
better, Encore.org is awarding Cockerton this year's $100,000 Purpose Prize for Intergenerational
Innovation, sponsored by AARP.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20070209/NYF043LOGO
)
Years ago, a news story about a 5-month-old foster child who had
been kidnapped from his crib shook Cockerton. She and her husband
became foster parents themselves, but Cockerton wanted to do more,
by helping others do more.
So in 2002, she founded the Treehouse Foundation, which created
Treehouse at Easthampton Meadow – a mixed-income, multigenerational
housing community in Easthampton,
Mass. Families who have adopted or are planning to adopt
foster children live among people age 55 and older, who serve as
"honorary grandparents."
Cockerton, 61, a former teacher and toy store owner, has
inspired more than 600 people to help foster children in
Massachusetts, through the
Treehouse Foundation and her two other nonprofits, Sibling
Connections and Birdsong Farm. Volunteers serve as mentors, tutors
and camp counselors. They teach foster kids how to read, plant
gardens and ride horses. They take them for nature walks and trips
to the playground. They enrich the lives of children who crave and
deserve healthy connections to caring adults.
Now in its seventh year, The Purpose Prize is America's only
large-scale investment in social entrepreneurs and other creative
problem solvers in the second half of life. The Prize program,
which recognizes people 60 and older, is funded by the John
Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Prize is
awarded by Encore.org (formerly Civic Ventures), a nonprofit that
promotes encore careers – work that is both personally meaningful
and serves the greater good.
This is the second year AARP – a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization, with a membership of more than 37 million – has
sponsored a special Purpose Prize to recognize people who bring
generations together to benefit society.
"Judy Cockerton has transformed
the lives of foster care children in Massachusetts," said Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Encore.org and
author of The Big Shift. "She shows that the second half of
life provides an opportunity to solve social problems and inspire
others to take action for a better community and a better
world."
"We are so moved by Judy's steadfast commitment to providing
unique learning opportunities for children in foster care by
connecting them with older mentors in their communities," said
Barb Quaintance, senior vice
president for volunteer and civic engagement at AARP. "She embodies
the very spirit of service that is part of AARP's mission to lead
positive, multigenerational social change."
Cockerton, through her Re-Envisioning Foster Care in America
Initiative, is now focused on bringing together diverse
stakeholders – from social workers to state officials, families to
philanthropists – to think creatively about how to change the
foster care system, in part by developing programs that communities
across the country can replicate.
"Winning The Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Innovation is a
tremendous honor," Cockerton said. "Encore.org and AARP are helping
me realize my goal of improving the lives of children placed in
foster care in Massachusetts and
beyond."
Cockerton will join four other 2012 Purpose Prize winners at an
awards ceremony in February in San
Francisco.
Short summaries for the other winners are below. Profiles,
videos and photographs are at www.encore.org/prize.
The other 2012 winners, who each receive $100,000, are:
Bhagwati (B.P.) Agrawal, 68, Sustainable Innovations Inc.,
Fairfax, Va.
By using his
engineering expertise, Agrawal is mitigating the water shortage in
his native India. Through his
nonprofit, Sustainable Innovations, he founded Aakash Ganga, or River from Sky, in 2003 to
create a system for collecting rain – one of precious few sources
of drinking water. Now, gutters, pipes and underground tanks gather
the short-lived rains of monsoon season in six villages, home to
10,000 people.
Susan Burton, 61, A New Way of
Life Reentry Project, Los
Angeles
Burton knows how difficult it is to escape a
cycle of incarceration. After breaking her own cycle by getting a
job and quitting drugs, she started inviting women recently
released from jail to stay with her. That informal shelter turned
into A New Way of Life Reentry Project in 2000. Today the
organization – which offers legal aid, job training and other
services aimed at directing former inmates toward productive lives
– runs five transitional residences that have served 600 women and
their children.
Thomas Cox, 68, Maine Attorneys Saving Homes, Portland, Maine
Cox helped start
Maine Attorneys Saving Homes in
2008 as a way of giving back some of what he felt he took away
during his long legal career, focused on representing banks. While
volunteering to help a woman save her home from foreclosure, Cox
revealed questionable foreclosure practices (known as the
"robo-signing" scandal), leading to a $25
billion settlement to help people who had suffered
foreclosure or who were on the brink. Now Cox is working to build a
network of lawyers to do similar volunteer legal work.
Lorraine Decker, 64, Skills
For Living Inc., Houston
On
September 11, 2001, Decker was ready
to embark on a routine trip to the Middle
East to teach financial, tax and estate-planning workshops
to corporate employees across the region. Grounded by the terrorist
attacks that day, she felt a profound need to help recreate the
future. The nonprofit that resulted in 2004, Skills For Living, has
helped more than 2,000 low-income teens, adults and families with
free financial, career and college-planning workshops – with a
creative twist.
About Encore.org (www.encore.org)
Encore.org is a nonprofit organization building a movement to make
it easier for millions of people to pursue "encore careers" –
second acts for the greater good. The Purpose Prize, funded by the
John Templeton Foundation and The Atlantic Philanthropies, is a
program of Encore.org.
About AARP (www.aarp.org)
AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, with a membership of
more than 37 million, that helps people 50+ have independence,
choice and control in ways that are beneficial to them and society
as a whole. AARP does not endorse candidates for public office or
make contributions to either political campaigns or candidates.
AARP Foundation is an affiliated charity that provides security,
protection, and empowerment to older persons in need with support
from thousands of volunteers, donors, and sponsors. AARP has
staffed offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
About the John Templeton Foundation
(www.templeton.org)
The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst
for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and
ultimate reality. The Foundation supports research on subjects
ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity,
forgiveness, love, and free will. It encourages civil, informed
dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and
between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of
definitional clarity and new insights. The Foundation's vision is
derived from the late Sir John
Templeton's optimism about the possibility of acquiring "new
spiritual information" and from his commitment to rigorous
scientific research and related scholarship. The Foundation's
motto, "How little we know, how eager to learn," exemplifies its
support for open-minded inquiry and its hope for advancing human
progress through breakthrough discoveries.
About The Atlantic Philanthropies
(www.atlanticphilanthropies.org)
The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting
changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
Atlantic is a limited life foundation that makes grants through its
five programme areas: Ageing, Children & Youth, Population
Health, Reconciliation & Human Rights, and Founding Chairman.
Atlantic is active in Bermuda,
Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the
United States and Viet
Nam.
SOURCE AARP