Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

New Survey Reveals Benefits of Older-Younger Tutoring Teams

New Survey Reveals Benefits of Older-Younger Tutoring Teams

For the past year, Ampact, with support from CoGenerate’s Generations Serving Together program, placed cogenerational pairs of AmeriCorps members in elementary schools. The older and younger adults worked side by side to improve students’ reading and math skills. A...

The Billionaire Who Gave Away His Fortune Took a Big Chance on Us

The Billionaire Who Gave Away His Fortune Took a Big Chance on Us

We at CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org) are mourning the loss of Chuck Feeney this week. Without Chuck's vision and generosity we likely would not exist as an organization. Twenty-five years ago Atlantic Philanthropies took a chance on our start-up, playing a...

*

Alicia Cuaron

Centro San Juan Diego
Purpose Prize Fellow 2010

Cuaron helps Spanish-speaking, low-income immigrants successfully integrate into U.S. society by providing culturally relevant education and support services.

Alicia Cuaron was a successful corporate executive and prominent Latina leader. Then, after a series of personal crises that profoundly impacted her life, she resigned from the company she founded and became a Franciscan nun.

Cuaron was assigned to a Catholic parish in a low-income, largely immigrant neighborhood in Denver. She realized there was a critical need for education and support services for Colorado’s rapidly expanding Spanish-speaking immigrant population.

“I realized that I needed to utilize all my skills, knowledge and expertise to assist others who did not have the opportunities I had,” says Cuaron.

She created the Bienestar Family Services program, a component of Centro San Juan Diego Office for Hispanic Ministry of the Archdiocese of Denver, to help recent immigrants successfully integrate into U.S. society. Bienestar (which means “well-being” in Spanish) seeks to use education as a way to break the cycle of poverty for these immigrants by providing holistic, culturally relevant adult education programs, civic development courses, employment training and family support services.

When the program began in 1998, 300 families participated. By 2009, more than 7,300 individuals received services. Cuaron plans to continue to have a lead role in developing the Bienestar program, including involvement in the creation of a college and career preparation program for high school youths.