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...
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Shirley Caldwell-Patterson
Purpose Prize Fellow 2006
Enhancing the future of the Cumberland River watershed
In 1997, at age 79, Shirley Caldwell-Patterson attended a presentation by Victor Scoggins who showed a film of his swim down the Cumberland River in Tennessee and Kentucky. A long-time conservationist, Patterson was appalled at the condition of the Cumberland River Basin, which consists of 14 watersheds and provides water to 2 million people. Recognizing that, in effect, we all live downstream, Patterson created the Cumberland River Compact with a mission to improve the water quality of the Cumberland River and its tributaries. Today the Compact is one of Tennessee’s leading environmental education organizations. Its goal of creating a Watershed Outreach Program in each of the 14 watersheds is halfway to completion. More than 300 elected officials have been educated about their community’s water resources and officials in the states of Kentucky and Tennessee have signed a Principles of Agreement to work jointly to improve the water supply in the future.