https://youtu.be/AdHsLrBxjoI At Citizen University, both teens and adults are deeply involved in strengthening civic culture. But when all ages met, both young and older were a bit uneasy. They wondered how they could best work together. How could they tap the talents...
Purpose Prize
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5 Ways to Make Your Collaboration with Teens a Success
Our task, as we understood it, was to get teen leaders involved in Citizen University’s Youth Collaboratory excited about working alongside adults to create change — what we call cogeneration. As it turns out, teens in the program were already excited about...
Want to Jumpstart a Conversation About Collaborating With Teens?
When CoGenerate and Citizen University launched a project to deepen cogenerational ties, our goal was to get teens excited about working alongside older adults to create change. What we discovered surprised us. Teens didn’t need convincing to work across generations....
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Orlando Tobon
Purpose Prize Fellow 2008
Helping immigrant New Yorkers avoid exploitation and get services they need.
Orlando Tobon immigrated from Colombia in 1968 and still works as an accountant and travel agent. Over the years, however, his tiny office in the “Little Colombia” section of Queens has become the place for newcomers to find advice, sanctuary and critical human services, and many lives have been saved as a result. Not paid for the help he provides, Tobon sees himself as representing the immigrant community as a whole, not just Colombians and Latinos. Tobon unites facets of the community that might not otherwise have contact with each other – police, schools, social workers, drug and alcohol treatment centers, lawyers, and employers – to help immigrants avoid exploitation and get the services they need. At 57, he co-produced and acted in the critically acclaimed 2004 film “Maria Full of Grace,” about a poor Colombian woman exploited to work as a courier for the Columbian drug cartels. With proceeds from the film and the increased public awareness it generated, Tobon continues to help hundreds of immigrants each year, especially against drugs and alcohol. He has formalized his fundraising through the Emma Cardenas Foundation, which distributes clothing and books to school children. “The more involved I became, the more I realized I had a mission to continue and expand my commitment.”