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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Robert Sanders

Harvey Brooks Foundation
Purpose Prize Fellow 2009

Under Bishop Sanders’ leadership, the Harvey Brooks Foundation provides programs and services for low-income, urban youth and adults that build character, life skills, scholastic achievement, and economic opportunities.

A longtime minister, Sanders took his faith in God and applied it to his faith in his community. As pastor of All Nations Church of God in Christ in Joliet, Illinois, and a bishop with more than 70 churches in his jurisdiction, Sanders sees the effects of poverty, teen pregnancy, and gang violence in the urban areas near Chicago. In 1998, Sanders established the faith-based Harvey Brooks Foundation (named for the founding pastor of Sanders’ church) in Joliet. The foundation serves as a community organization that provides an array of programs and services for at-risk youth and families, substance abusers, and senior citizens – including after-school tutoring, recreational activities, counseling for juveniles and ex-offenders, and free meals. The programs encourage community-grown efforts to minister to the entire neighborhood, regardless of church affiliation or membership. Though Sanders’ foundation serves all ages, its focus is on youth. “I understand what attracts a child to the gang culture: the syndrome of violence from one generation to the next; youth in need of help with nowhere to turn; and the sense of helplessness that leads to hopelessness,” Sanders says.