Friendships are finally getting their due. Once relegated to a distant third position after life partners and children, a spate of new books are spotlighting the importance of friends. And research shows that people with close friends are healthier – both emotionally...
Purpose Prize
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An Intergenerational Approach to Getting Families Housed in Santa Barbara
Lyiam Galo is the co-director of Generations United for Service, a program of the Northern Santa Barbara County United Way and one of 10 awardees of the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity. Watch for interviews with all 10 of these innovators bringing...
Utilizing Faith-Owned Land to Strengthen Intergenerational Community in Seattle
E.N. West is the co-founder and lead organizer of the Faith Land Initiative of the Church Council of Greater Seattle, one of 10 awardees of the CoGen Challenge to Advance Economic Opportunity. Watch for interviews with all 10 of these innovators bringing older and...
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Carole Sumner Krechman
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008
Creating peace and tolerance trainings to reduce youth violence.
As CEO of Recreation World, Carole Sumner Krechman and her husband Sheldon owned and operated the Ice Capades and 22 ice-skating and roller-skating rinks around the United States.
After retiring, Krechman, then Chair of the Board of Friends of the United Nations was inspired by the words of U.N. Secretary Kofi Anan who called for a decade of peace and tolerance. She decided to connect her experience working with youth at the skating rinks, with Anan’s message of peaceful empowerment.
With the goal of reducing gang violence by teaching youth to use words instead of violence to solve problems, Krechman launched the Peacemaker Corps Association. She worked with the shopping mall industry to donate space for trainings; secured funding from government agencies and foundations to create a train the trainer curriculum covering conflict, the celebration of diversity, communication, tolerance, mediation, mentoring and community action; and with the Department of Housing and Urban Development identified potential youth leaders from its public housing projects.
In 1999, its inaugural year, Peacemaker Corps was launched in thirteen cities nationwide. To date, Peacemaker has trained over 2,000 youths and 100 adult trainers. The program is being taught in all the elementary schools in Redman, Washington and in South Central Los Angeles, a Peacemaker graduate is servicing youths at risk through a grass roots effort. Â “Seeing these young people blossom has been the most rewarding experience of my life, which has been blessed with many remarkable experiences.”