Beverly Santicola Honored as Encore.org 2014 Purpose Prize Fellow

HOUSTON - Oct. 24, 2014 - PRLog -- 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 Beverly Santicola for the CROPS’ Growing Rural/Growing SMART Project that she started with her mom, Ardella Paulsen, in 2004.

“I am thrilled to be selected for Encore.org’s/Purpose Prize fellow award in 2014 for my work focused on alleviating poverty in America by teaching youth problem solving and grant writing.”

“Beverly Santicola 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 Beverly Santicola 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.

For more information or to nominate candidates for The 2015 Purpose Prize, visit: http://www.encore.org/prize

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 Beverly’s project follows.

In 2001, my husband and I moved to Houston from Ohio, where I had spent 10 years running a nonprofit labor management organization. I grew its annual budget from $25,000 to $500,000, including raising $1 million to build a rural elementary school science center and school-based community technology center. But in Houston, I couldn’t find a job in my field or a place where I could work with youth. After many failed attempts, I launched my own consulting business, offering workshops, coaching and grant writing services to organizations addressing social problems nationwide. Since then, I’ve trained more than 6,000 nonprofit leaders and assembled a team of grant writers and students that has won more than $450 million in grants for social good. In 2002, my father died and I began to visit my mother more frequently in my hometown of San Pierre, Indiana - population 156. As we sat every Sunday in the church of our little farm community, I realized I needed to turn my focus to rural America, once the backbone of our economy but now a place where poverty rules. In 2004 my mother, age 79, and I, age 55, co-founded the nonprofit Center for Rural Outreach and Public Services, Inc. (CROPS), which aims to alleviate poverty through local capacity-building. We began in San Pierre, where we organized local youth and teen volunteers from Toledo to upgrade the park and recreational facilities, improve town signage and renovate the former Lions Club building. This became the model for our youth-led community development initiatives called Growing Rural/Growing SMART. We teach kids problem-solving, critical thinking, communication skills and grant writing — essential tools for developing creative solutions to community problems. Today, these programs benefit nine socioeconomically diverse schools in six states. Our teen participants have generated more than $100,000 in funding to solve critical community problems affecting more than 60,000 people, including meth use in rural areas, coastline degradation, school bullying, teen pregnancy and academic failure in math and science. My mom has since passed away but left me with her spirit to finish our work — and to pass on the lessons I learned growing up on our small family farm, where my childhood chores included gathering eggs, shoveling manure and harvesting crops. Each day I am reminded of the importance of hard work, community values and intergenerational relationships that were once the strength of rural America. - See more at: http://www.encore.org/beverly-santicola-0

BEVERLY SANTICOLA.

Beverly Santicola, Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Rural Outreach & Public Services, Inc. is a national training consultant with expertise in grant writing, grant administration, nonprofit leadership, project management, and community development. Since 2001 she has trained staff and volunteers from more than 6,000 nonprofit organizations throughout United States and Puerto Rico, including government agencies, educational institutions, health care providers, churches, faith-based organizations, other nonprofits and Native American Tribes. Her work in rural communities led to recognition by Civic Ventures as a 2010 and 2014 Purpose Prize Fellow. Beverly has served as a federal grant reviewer, as well as a Certified Federal Grants Administrator, administering numerous federal grants. She has generated over $27 million dollars in grant funding for health care, mental health, drug prevention, disaster relief, technology, elementary/secondary education, economic development, and labor-management cooperation. Beverly has led several projects that won national awards for excellence, including AFL-CIO National Labor Management Award, the Work in America – Search for Excellence Award, the Best Practices Award from the US Department of Education and Labor, and the Governor’s Award for Team Excellence. Santicola is a highly sought after public speaker that remains active in the field of grant administration, and grant writing, working with a team of affiliates that have generated more than $450 MILLION in grants for their clients over the past eight years. To contact Beverly Santicola contact her at www.centerforruraloutreach.org or www.usgg.net.

Contact: Encore.org media line (415-890-0142)or Marci Alboher, VP of Marketing and Communications, at malboher@encore.org