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Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Event Recording: Try Yoda: Younger + Olders Dismantling Ageism

Event Recording: Try Yoda: Younger + Olders Dismantling Ageism

Young leaders can often bring visibility and cultural clout. Older leaders can often bring resources, networks, and institutional power. Put them together and the potential is huge. But let’s be honest, it’s not always that simple. This session delivers a primer on...

Overheard on Text: When the Stereotypes Are True

Overheard on Text: When the Stereotypes Are True

As colleagues from different generations (x and millennial), Marci Alboher and Duncan Magidson have been leading talks and workshops sharing their insights about working across generations. As they plan, they usually text furiously, sharing ideas and reflections....

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Bernie Glassman

Zen Peacemakers
Purpose Prize Fellow 2007

Harnessing the energies of business, government, and social-service providers to address urban decay.

Bernie Glassman’s first career was as an aeronautic engineer for McDonnell-Douglas in the early 60s, concentrating on interplanetary flights. But Glassman became a social entrepreneur in 1982, articulating a vision that socially responsible businesses can have a double bottom line: generating profits and serving the community. The Greyston Bakery was the first such venture, the building block of a larger socially responsible business model which Glassman developed. Known as the Greyston Mandala, this network of for-profits and not-for-profits has worked together to improve the lives of individuals and the larger inner-city community of southwest Yonkers for 25 years. Glassman left Greyston in 1996, but 10 years later (after founding Zen Peacemakers), he has plunged back into social entrepreneurship, this time in Springfield, Massachusetts, a city in steep decline. Where others saw hopelessness, Glassman saw an opportunity to once again provide a comprehensive solution to urban decay by harnessing the energies of business, government, and social-service providers. In 2006, at the age of 68, Glassman created the PathMaker Partnership, an alliance of Zen Peacemakers, a local “green” business entrepreneur, and the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office. PathMaker provides housing, jobs, and support programs to homeless persons and those who were formerly incarcerated.