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!...
Purpose Prize
The Latest from CoGenerate
What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies
We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change. In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...
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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Kenneth Barnes
Purpose Prize Fellow 2009
Since his son was shot to death, Barnes has developed proactive programs to understand and curb gun and youth violence.
Life changed for Barnes on Sept. 24, 2001. While working toward his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Loyola College in Maryland, tragedy of the worst kind struck. His son, Kenneth Barnes Jr., 37, was murdered — shot during a robbery. Through his anguish, the senior Barnes founded Reaching Out to Others Together Inc., or ROOT, a nonprofit that mobilizes communities to reduce homicides resulting from gun and youth violence. Now 64, Barnes uses his research and advocacy skills in numerous ways. His research on youth in grades 5 through 12 found that in some school districts as many as 90 percent of students had been affected by the loss of a family member or friend to gun violence. In 2009, Barnes was involved in a nationwide organizing campaign for the Communities in Action Neighborhood Defense and Opportunity Act, which called for funding gun violence prevention efforts in pilot cities across the country. In 2011, President Obama granted Barnes a President’s Volunteer Service Award for Barnes’ commitment to volunteerism.To Barnes, a worthy goal after suffering tragedy is “to be able to delve deep inside of oneself and make something positive out of something so terribly negative.”