Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

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!...

Two Oscar-winning Films Shine a Light on Intergenerational Connection

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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Marguerite Kondracke

America's Promise -- The Alliance for Youth
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006

Making children and youth a national priority

Marguerite (Sallee) Kondracke has devoted her career in both the public and private sectors to improving the well-being of young people. After she developed the Healthy Child Initiative as a cabinet member in the administration of then Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, infant mortality fell to its lowest point in the state’s history. As a single working mother, she co-founded a pioneering company in the field of employer-sponsored child care. This company, Bright Horizons Family Solutions, is now a public company working in partnership with more than 500 of the nation’s leading employers to offer high-quality, on-site child care that helps employees balance work and family. In 2004, Kondracke became the CEO of America’s Promise, a nonprofit that has become the nation’s largest cross-sector alliance working for the well-being of young people. America’s Promise is a collaborative network involves 400 national partners – including corporations, nonprofits and foundations – as well policymakers, communities and individuals. Together, members of this network leverage their efforts to ensure that all young people in America will receive five essential resources they need to succeed: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education and opportunities to help others. Under Kondracke’s leadership, the America’s Promise has established an ambitious five-year goal: to change the lives of 15 million underserved young people through the power of these Five Promises.