Douglas E. Noll Honored as Encore.org 2014 Purpose Prize Fellow: Outstanding Social Innovators Working to Change the World
San Francisco, Ca (PRWEB) October 24, 2014 -- On October 28, in Tempe, Arizona, Encore.org will honor the achievements of 38 Purpose Prize fellows, social innovators over 60 years of age who are dedicated to finding solutions to challenging social problems, including Douglas Noll, a co-founder with his colleague Laurel Kaufer, of Prison of Peace. "I never imagined that in my mid-sixties I would be finding ways to serve others in a deep and meaningful way. Encore.org honors not just my work, but the dedicated work of the peacemakers and mediators we have trained and mentored in California prisons. These inmates have moved from serving life sentences to living lives of service."
"Douglas E. Noll and the 2014 Purpose Prize fellows have applied their abundant talents to address a broad range of issues, including poverty, racism, community health, education, veterans’ issues and the environment,” said Eunice Lin Nichols, director of The Purpose Prize. "Despite their differences, they are united in the belief that the work they are doing now ranks among their most significant accomplishments, impacting thousands of people."
Now in its ninth year, The Purpose Prize is the nation’s pre-eminent large-scale investment in people over the age of 60 who are combining their life skills and talents for the social good. The Purpose prize is a program of Encore.org (formerly Civic Ventures), a nonprofit organization that is building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world.
The 2014 Purpose Prize fellows represent inspiring examples of social innovation with growing potential for impact. As Purpose Prize fellows, they gain valuable access to a dynamic learning community of like-minded encore leaders and innovators.
“Encore.org is proud to recognize the achievements of Douglas Noll and the 2014 Purpose Prize fellows cohort. They stand as powerful examples for the millions of Americans who believe that using their life experience to make a difference – big or small, across communities, continents and generations – is a vital responsibility,” Nichols said.
Created in 2005 by Encore.org with major investments from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation, The Purpose Prize has honored over 430 Purpose Prize winners and fellows in nine years. Taken together, their work showcases the enormous, and too-often overlooked, value of experience, and disproves the notion that innovation is the sole province of the young.
See more at: http://www.encore.org. Contact: Encore.org media line (415-890-0142) or Marci Alboher, VP of Marketing and Communications, at malboher(at)encore(dot)org
About The Atlantic Philanthropies. The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Atlantic is a limited-life foundation that makes grants through its five program areas: Aging, Children & Youth, Population Health, Reconciliation & Human Rights, and Founding Chairman.
About the John Templeton Foundation. The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. The Foundation supports research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. It encourages civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights.
About Encore.org. Encore.org is a national nonprofit that is building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world. The Purpose Prize is a program of Encore.org.
A brief summary of Doug Noll’s Prison of Peace project follows.
Founded in 2009, Prison of Peace trains inmates serving life sentences in California prisons to be peacemakers, mediators, mentors and trainers. Through an intensive learning process, inmates in both men’s and women’s prisons learn how to de-escalate conflicts quickly, listen empathically, and help fellow inmates resolve the myriad arguments, conflicts, and disputes that arise in the prison environment.
The goals of the project are:
• To teach personal emotional intelligence skills to inmates
• To teach essential personal problem-solving skills to inmates
• To introduce and teach the restorative process of peace circles
• To introduce and teach the principles of moral engagement
• To teach basic mediation skills as third party neutrals
• To embed peacemaking, defined as collaborative, respectful problem-solving processes to resolve interpersonal and group conflicts, within the prison.
• To create capacity to continue the expansion of training and knowledge within the prison by training inmates to be instructors and trainers.
• To create a sustainable program of peace-building within the prison
• To demonstrate the power of non-coercive, non-violent methods of conflict resolution to correctional officers and prison administrators
• To demonstrate the power of human redemption, transformation, and growth in all humans, regardless of crimes committed or circumstances of life
Diane Dennis, Inspired Media, http://www.inspiredmc.com, +1 (503) 678-1356, [email protected]
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