https://youtu.be/6Y-dZrgfV00 Music can bring generations together for connection and collaboration, inspiration and celebration. Join us to learn more about three nonprofits bringing generations together through music and, as a special bonus, listen in on three...
Purpose Prize
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Across the country, a new wave of intergenerational collaboration is transforming how communities approach youth development. Some organizations are riding this momentum with ease, while others are still finding their footing. Amidst the buzz of books, webinars, and...
These Intergenerational Music Sessions Are Transforming Lives
We’re partnering with The Eisner Foundation on a new program called Music Across Generations, which explores and celebrates how music brings generations together to bridge divides, create connection, and strengthen communities. This Q&A series shines a light on...
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Kevin McDonald
Purpose Prize Fellow 2009
McDonald is helping substance abusers — most with criminal records — transform their lives and become productive, employed members of the community.
Years of substance abuse culminating in serious heroin addiction landed McDonald in a Los Angeles jail cell charged with armed robbery in 1979. He was released into a unique San Francisco-based recovery program, got clean, and eventually rose to one of the top posts in the resident-run organization. In 1994, McDonald opened his own program, Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers (TROSA), in Durham, North Carolina, with an $18,000 community investment. He secured an abandoned elementary school that would serve as home base. TROSA maintains a free, long-term, residential, community-based approach to substance abuse. Based on a social entrepreneurial model, TROSA residents run a series of businesses that serve as on-the-job vocational training sites and help sustain the organization. TROSA’s business revenues and in-kind contributions secured by residents cover almost 90 percent of a $10 million budget. McDonald, 62, says the feeling among the program’s recovering addicts is: “Don’t give me handouts. Give me work.” In 2004, the city of Durham honored TROSA with a Golden Leaf Award for Community Appearance for renovating seven properties in one neighborhood. Annually, TROSA serves close to 700 substance abusers. According to McDonald, more than 90 percent of participants are still drug free one year after graduating from the program.