Eight people over 50 who started organizations talk about their work: connecting Alzheimer's patients with middle schoolers, repurposing fitness trackers for underserved communities, building a Latina support network, helping families plan caregiving. They describe purpose as service and impact, and how it often comes after lived experience.
My name is Karen Young, and I co-founded an organization called Sweet Readers.
I'm Lisa Gualteri. I'm the founder and director of Recycle Health.
Mark Sophis. I'm the executive director of Media for the Public Good and executive producer of Outcasting.
My name is Pat Coggins with Ask My Buddy.
My name is Nora de Hoyos Comstock of Las Comadres ¡Palabras para las Américas!
Sheila Warnock. I'm the founder and president of Share the Caregiving, also widely known as Share the Care.
My name is Donna Gambrell, and I'm the CEO of Appalachian Community Capital.
My name is Kristi Baxter, and I'm a founding expert for understood.org.
I'm Mark Griffin. I'm also a founding expert for understood.org.
Our organization is about educating people.
We build community for Latinas.
Sweet Readers connects middle school kids and adults who have Alzheimer's for fun and creative programs based in science and the arts.
Recycle Health collects fitness trackers that people are no longer using, and we provide them to underserved populations.
Ask My Buddy provides a personal alert network for an individual to be able to ask for assistance by just using their voice.
It's an international network of women getting together to build support systems to support each other, open doors, and preserve and celebrate culture.
What our organization addresses is access— providing access to capital in underserved communities.
We produce Outcasting, public radio's LGBTQ youth program. We give a national voice to LGBTQ youth.
Our organization empowers ordinary people with a plan of action so they can create and maintain a caregiving family facing the challenges of aging.
Understood is an online digital platform that helps parents on their journey when they have a child that has a learning and attention issue.
Purpose to me means service.
Purpose to me is providing value.
That I am having an impact upon my community.
Finding your purpose is, it's kind of a quirky, interesting thing.
I think the way to find your purpose is to take an idea, take an observation, and run with it.
Well, I think purpose oftentimes comes after some experience.
You not only add the age and the wrinkles and the gray hair, but also what comes with that is a lot of wisdom.
Your purpose is tied to who you are.
I didn't come out until I was 39, and so doing anything LGBTQ-related wasn't even possible before then.
In your 50s, if you've been at it in a particular industry, or even if you've been in 2 or 3 different industries, you have amassed a tremendous amount of information about how to go about things in a way that it's useful to other people.
As we grow older, we have so many experiences that can come together and be applied to do something of great use. And I find that a common thread among all the other fellows that I've met today.
Akwesasne Radio Interview Reen Cook with Tewentahawih'tha' Cole and Sheila Warnock
Lori Miller of Kawaii Hospice in Kawaii Hawaii - Share The Care - Sheila Warnock
