Purpose Prize

CHI's Exec. Dir. Gets National Recognition

 

San Francisco, CA - December 5, 2008

Sharon Schindler Rising, CHI Founder/Exec. Dir, awarded 2008 Purpose Prize For Innovation, Extraordinary Social Contribution In an Encore Career, After Age 60

• For the full news release, click here
• For the Civic Ventures page on Sharon Rising, click here
• For a video clip of Sharon receiving the actual award, click here
• For information on Encore Careers, and other prize winners, click here
• For a video profile of Sharon Rising, click here

 

Sharon Schindler Rising Awarded 2008 Purpose Prize

For Innovation, Extraordinary Social Contribution in Encore Career, After Age 60

 

SAN FRANCISCO - Civic Ventures (www.civicventures.org), a national think tank on boomers, workand social purpose, announced that Sharon Schindler Rising 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.

 

Rising of Centering Healthcare Institute will receive $10,000 for her work to establish and promote the Centering model of group health care. The Prize consists of six $100,000 awards and nine $10,000 awards.

 

"I created group prenatal care when I was a practicing nurse-midwife in Waterbury," says Rising about her Centering model. "After discussing relief for back pain with 3 or 4 women in a row, I decided it would make sense to group expectant moms according to their due dates, and have them come at the same time for care. They loved meeting together, sharing their wisdom, and creating friendships-and CenteringPregnancy was born. In 2007 we published the results of a randomized trial indicating a 33% reduction in preterm birth for women from New Haven and Atlanta receiving care in Centering groups. It's a great honor for me to be recognized by Civic Ventures, and also an honor for all the Centering care providers and sites located around the country."

 

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 the Second Half of Life. "It's reassuring to note that as America ages, we have creativity in greater abundance. Purpose Prize winners such as Rising show that experience and innovation can go hand in hand, that inventiveness is not the sole province of the young."

 

Centering Healthcare Institute (www.centeringhealthcare.org), the non-profit agency which Rising founded in 2003, trains doctors, midwives, and nurses to provide group care according to Centering's principles. Several large studies have shown that patients who receive Centering care have better health outcomes than their counterparts in traditional care and are more satisfied with their care. In addition to the original pregnancy model, there are now also models for pediatrics and diabetes.

 

Summaries of all winners, as well as videos and photographs, are online at 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.

 

About Centering Healthcare Institute, Inc.

The mission of Centering Healthcare Institute, Inc. (www.centeringhealthcare.org) is to change the paradigm of health services to a group care model in order to improve the overall health outcomes of mothers, babies, new families and all individuals across the life cycle.

 

About Civic Ventures

Civic Ventures (www.civicventures.org) is a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.

 

Abut The Atlantic Philanthropies

The Atlantic Philanthropies (www.atlanticphilanthropies.org) are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Their work is aimed at ageing, disadvantaged children and youth, population health, and reconciliation and human rights.

 

About the John Templeton Foundation

The John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org) serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discovery in the areas engaging life's biggest questions. These questions range from explorations into the laws of nature and the universe to questions on the nature of love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity.

 

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