FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 26, 2009

Media Contact:
Seth Kilbourn, Executive Director
415-296-8995 x6
seth@openhouse-sf.org

openhouse Founder Dr. Marcy Adelman Among 10 Social Innovators to Win 2009 Purpose Prize

Entrepreneurs Over 60 Win $50,000 – $100,000 Each for Using Creativity and Experience to Solve Long-Standing Social Problems

San Francisco—openhouse Founder and Board Member, Dr. Marcy Adelman, has been awarded a 2009 Purpose Prize, which honors social entrepreneurs over 60 who are using their experience and passion to take on society’s biggest challenges. Dr. Adelman will receive $50,000 for her work to provide housing, services and community programs for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors.

Throughout her career as a psychologist, Dr. Adelman became acutely aware that LGBT seniors were not getting the care and support they needed because of discrimination, lack of relationship recognition and estrangement from family members who are typically the primary caregivers of seniors as they age.  Not content to sit on the sidelines, she co-founded openhouse to build LGBT-friendly housing; train and educate service providers; and create community networks to better support LGBT older adults.  Dr. Adelman is donating her prize money to openhouse.

Click here to see a video about Dr. Adelman.  Career summaries, videos and photographs of Dr. Adelman and all the Purpose Prize winners are online at www.encore.org.  For more information and a video about openhouse, visit www.openhouse-sf.org.

“Marcy is being recognized for her visionary leadership in changing the ways in which individuals, organizations and political leaders see and value the contributions of LGBT older adults,” said openhouse Executive Director Seth Kilbourn.  “As the founder of openhouse and in her ongoing role as advisor and board member, Marcy is an inspiring example of what can happen when a person puts their passion, creativity, determination and experience to a higher purpose.”

Purpose Prize winners are using their experience and passion to take on society’s biggest challenges.  This year’s winners include a former telecom executive who helped wire an Appalachian county; a professor who invented a way to transform toxic fly ash into green bricks; and a couple who bring mental health services to countries ravaged by war and terrorism.

“I am deeply honored to receive this award and to be included in such an inspiring group of people,” said Dr. Adelman.  “My late partner, Jeanette Gurevitch, and I founded openhouse in 1998 because LGBT seniors were underserved and invisible in senior housing, services and programs.  We founded openhouse to make the senior health care system more responsive to the needs of LGBT seniors.  I am proud of openhouse’s gifted staff, dedicated board members and so many others who have helped make that vision a reality.”

The Encore Careers campaign is run by Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Funding for The Purpose Prize comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.  Now in its fourth year, the six-year, $17 million program is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

“More than ever, the problems facing our communities, country and world call out for creative solutions,” said Marc Freedman, co-founder of The Purpose Prize and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. “Fortunately, we don’t run out of ideas as we age.”

Sherry Lansing, CEO of the Sherry Lansing Foundation and former chair of Paramount Pictures’ Motion Picture Group, chairs the jury that selected this year’s winners. The 24 judges are leaders in business, politics, journalism and the nonprofit sector – including actor Sidney Poitier, social entrepreneur Thomas Tierney, former Senator Harris Wofford and journalist Cokie Roberts.

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About openhouse (www.openhouse-sf.org)

Founded in 1998, openhouse is building critically-needed housing, services and community programs to support the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults.  openhouse: there’s no place like home.

About Civic Ventures (www.encore.org)

Civic Ventures is a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose.

About The Atlantic Philanthropies (www.atlanticphilanthropies.org)

The Atlantic Philanthropies are dedicated to bringing about lasting changes in the lives of disadvantaged and vulnerable people. Their work is aimed at ageing, disadvantaged children and youth, population health, and reconciliation and human rights.

About the John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org)

The John Templeton Foundation serves as a philanthropic catalyst for research and discoveries relating to what scientists and philosophers call the Big Questions. The Foundation supports work at the world’s top universities in such fields as theoretical physics, cosmology, evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and social science relating to love, forgiveness, creativity, purpose, and the nature and origin of religious belief.