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The Latest from CoGenerate

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Event Recording: Book Talk: Cogeneration in the Age of AI

Simple question: Do you miss human connection when you use self-checkout at the grocery store? Complex question: How is cogeneration threatened by AI, profit-driven “efficiencies,” and automation — and what can we do about it? Allison Pugh, author of the book The Last...

Putting Two Things Together

Putting Two Things Together

On Friday, May 15, I had the great honor to address the 2026 graduates of Drew University, including the undergraduate College of Liberal Arts, the Theological School, and the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies. I'm very grateful to Drew's remarkable President...

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Introducing the CoGen Voices Fellows

Across the country, young people and older people are stepping up as civic leaders. But too often, they do this critical work with peers, in age-segregated spaces. Young people work without the benefit of older generations who bring lived experience, networks, and a...

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Jane Roberts

34 Million Friends
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008

Supporting family planning and reproductive health for women in the developing world.

In 2002, Jane Roberts, a retired California teacher, and Lois Abraham, a New Mexico lawyer, were both angered to learn that President George Bush had decided to withhold $34 million that Congress had appropriated for UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund. Independently, they decided to appeal to fellow Americans to donate one dollar at a time to make up the amount the government was withholding from UNFPA. Roberts and Abraham jointly founded 34 Million Friends, a grassroots movement that aims to get 34 million people to donate $1 each to support UNFPA and its work. Grassroots fundraising and advocacy, initially spearheaded by both women and now led by Roberts, is an “exercise in outraged democracy,” according to Roberts. 34 Million Friends has raised almost $4 million from hundreds of thousands of individuals and donors to support UNFPA’s family planning and reproductive health care programs in 150 countries around the world. Funds have paid for an operating room in Bamako, Mali; emergency obstetrical care equipment in East Timor; and safe birthing kits for health centers worldwide. “I have always felt a deep commitment to women, their lives, choices, rights and responsibilities. This was the one thing I wanted to concentrate on in my retirement. So I feel very lucky to be able to devote myself to this cause in my later years.”