I wanted to share some exciting news: my colleague and co-author Michelle Cote was selected from 3000+ applicants to represent The Purpose Project at Women Rule!—a joint initiative of The Oprah Magazine and The White House Project to support 80 women, each with an “idea that could change the world.”

Michelle applied and was selected earlier this year, but we had to wait until now to share the news since O! Magazine was the first to “announce” the women in the October issue of their magazine, which hit newsstands Tuesday.

This is a great achievement for Michelle and a great opportunity for The Purpose Project. In addition to a three-day leadership workshop earlier this year, Michelle will receive ongoing access to mentoring, coaching and a great network of women changemakers. (It also moves us one step closer to getting our book on Oprah’s book club list one day!)

You can check out the short profiles of Michelle and the other women in the online version of O! Magazine here. The Hartford Courant also had a short article in yesterday’s paper, which is available here.

Warmly,
Matthew

One Challenge Met
We want to thank you for your response to our recent challenge grant. Together, your contributions pushed us past our $20,000 goal and secured the matching funds! This achievement comes at a critical time for us and helps us establish a base of funding for the project that we will be able to draw on into the coming year.

One More to Go
This weekend, we will participate in the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC)–a 192 mile bike-a-thon supporting cancer research–as part of our efforts to share the story of its Founder, Billy Starr.

Shortly after losing his mother and two other family members to cancer during his final year in college, Billy lost his direction in life–for a while. And it was cycling, his favored outlet for coping with his grief, that brought him back on track. After graduation, Billy began getting up before dawn and setting off on a new personal challenge: to bike 140 miles from his parents’ house in Newton, MA, to Provincetown in time to catch the 3:30 PM ferry home. (more…)

The story behind the story of this year’s primary elections has been the power and influence of America’s youth vote. Record numbers of young adults are turning out to make their voices heard; in some states, turnout rates among young adults have doubled or even tripled. Barack Obama, in particular, has struck a chord among young adults with his message for change: among the under-30 crowd, voters are breaking almost 2:1 in his favor.* We’ve found these statistics interesting not only as indicators of political strategy, but as evidence of a new level of growing civic participation among young adults. According to Peter Levine, director of the civic engagement research group CIRCLE, rising youth turnout rates are reflective of this generation’s “deep concern about the critical issues at stake and the impact of this election on our country’s future.” Young adults are anxious for change and are now considering voting as one way to play a role in determining our collective future. (more…)

An Overview of Our Vision and Plans for the Next Two Years

April-September, 2008: Fundraising and Research

During this period, we will work to fundraise and establish a solid base of support for the project. Both of us will meet with prospective funders and work to establish partnerships with publishers, college and university faculty and student groups, community groups, and organizations promoting civic engagement. Our secondary focus will be on continuing to conduct interviews and writing the next two chapters of the book with Billy Starr, Founder of the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, and Liz Titus Putnam, Founder of Student Conservation Association. (more…)

Our Key Accomplishments: Fall 2006 - Spring 2008

Fall 2006: The Idea is Born

• Project concept formed through conversations with each other and Matt’s mentors, Bob and Alice Evans (founders of Plowshares Institute).
• Developed preliminary goal: to capture and disseminate the wisdom and experience that Bob and Alice had acquired over their careers.
• Quickly expanded our mission to include a diverse selection of accomplished changemakers whose stories could inspire and equip a new generation of social leaders.
• Began researching the extent of our generation’s social involvement, and studying and talking to members of our “target audience” to define the challenge and opportunity. (more…)

This is the new website for The Purpose Project, a nonprofit venture working to create a dialogue between different generations of social changemakers: those who will soon retire, and those who will be responsible for leading us forward.

We’re excited about having a more robust, blog-based website where we can share our progress with you more easily. This customizable platform, powered by WordPress will allow us to post updates as we conduct interviews with the changemakers, write articles and chapters from the book, and begin to develop the curricula and teaching tools.

Duke ran a short article today in The Chronicle about The Purpose Project. There are a few errors (Plowshares Institute definitely isn’t “reaching a standstill”) but otherwise it’s a nice feature. Click here to read the full article.