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
The Latest from CoGenerate
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...
*
Florence and Joe Catledge
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011
The Catledges provide access to education to at-risk populations using a holistic approach.
When she retired after more than three decades in the Ohio public school system, Florence Catledge returned to her hometown of Montgomery, Ala., where she rekindled a romance with her high school sweetheart, Joe, who was also an educator. As happy as that circumstance was, Florence nevertheless became depressed by the idleness she found in retirement. “It was like Jeremiah. I had fire in my bones and could not stand to stay at home,” she remembers.
She found her calling right in their neighborhood, an area rife with drug use, unemployment, dysfunctional families and neglected children. Tapping into their retirement savings, the Catledges founded the New Beginnings Resource Center in 2002 to provide education assistance for kids.
At the center, children as young as 4 can get after-school tutoring in math, English, science, social studies and writing, or enroll in the summer camp enrichment program. People who never graduated from high school may receive one-on-one GED preparation and mentoring. For adults the center offers life skill courses covering everything from relationships and self-esteem to parenting and anger management.
Working closely with parents, schools and churches, the center has helped more than 500 at-risk children and adults take a step toward escaping the poverty that surrounds them. Because of the center’s holistic approach, other organizations are seeking the Catledges’ guidance on how to successfully combine academic, character education and life skills components in their programs.
2016 Update: The nonprofit formerly known as New Beginnings Resource Center is now New Beginnings Educational Center.