Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

Despite the ongoing drumbeat of generational conflict (a hate story), right in front of us is evidence of a new narrative of cross-generational connection and collaboration (a love story).  That love story was on full display at the Grammys, most visibly in the Tracy...

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Judy Koch

Bring Me A Book
Purpose Prize Fellow 2007

Providing easy access to high quality children’s books and inspiring parents to read aloud

A former English teacher-turned-CEO, Judy Koch increased revenues at RSP Manufacturing Corporation from $6 million to $95 million in seven years. But Koch wanted to do more than raise dollars. She sought to give the company’s employees – 80 percent of whom were Hispanic – opportunities to help their children. The path: establish a library at the company to provide easy access to age-appropriate books. Employees embraced the program and, as they read to their children, their own language skills improved. After Koch sold RSP in 1997, she built on the library initiative. Koch’s current goal is to increase literacy through a self-sustaining social enterprise that will provide read-aloud workshops and build libraries in underserved communities throughout the world. To achieve that goal, she established the Bring Me A Book Foundation. The Foundation has served more than 480,000 families at more than 850 library installations in preschools, childcare centers, homeless shelters, clinics, hospitals, community centers, Boys and Girls Clubs, and businesses throughout the United States and in several countries. All libraries include new, multicultural and multilingual books. The Foundation also provides a “train the trainer” First Teachers Read Aloud program in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cambodian.