In Harmony with HopeSM and Elfen Works Awards
“We applaud those groups and individuals who are working to mitigate the problem of poverty in America. As a way of celebrating these efforts we announce the annual In Harmony with HopeSM Award. In addition, we invite visitors to nominate those deserving of recognition with an Elfen Works Award.”
Each year since 2007, The Elfenworks Foundation has paid tribute to a few select individuals who are working to create local abundance through substantive, meaningful, and innovative change. The extraordinary people who are honored with an In Harmony with Hope award are creative social entrepreneurs who have developed innovative solutions to pressing needs in our society. The programs also hold out the promise of being replicable in communities across the country.
From health care and housing to child welfare and gang intervention, from integrating inmates into society and jobs training to urban agriculture and food distribution, the programs created by our In Harmony with Hope winners have demonstrated proven results and had significant impact.
Candidates for the annual award come to the attention of The Elfenworks Foundation through formal nominations and through ongoing research by members of the Elfenworks team. In addition to carefully selecting for innovation, creativity, scope and impact, The Elfenworks Foundation uses the Seven Pillar Methodology first laid out by former president Jimmy Carter and later adapted by founder Dr. Lauren Speeth to evaluate all potential award candidates. The seven criteria are:
- don’t listen to naysayers
- fill a chasm where you don’t duplicate the good work of others
- go only where your special skills make a difference
- work in partnership
- care about the results more than who gets the credit
- constantly measure for course correction, and
- and foster a work environment that allows for bumps along the path to great successes.
Each nomination undergoes a thorough investigation that includes research and speaking with individuals who have worked with the nominee. A file is prepared for each of the strongest candidates and they are presented to the foundation’s Board of Trustees for final selection in the spring of each year. The annual In Harmony with Hope awards ceremony takes place in the early fall in the California bay area.
Thus far, we have recognized the following visionaries for their remarkable efforts: Gregory Boyle (Homeboy Industries), Rosalynn Carter (The Carter Center), Joyce Dattner (Bay Area All Stars), Robert Egger (DC Central Kitchen and V3), Dr. Paul Farmer (Partners in Health), Lois Lee (Children of the Night), Dr. Jack McConnell (Volunteers in Medicine), Paul Minorini (Boys Hope Girls Hope), and Peter Young (Peter Young Housing, Industries and Treatment). Our next group of honorees will be presented with their awards on September 30, 2010.
The Elfenworks Foundation also accepts nominations for the Elfen Works Award, as a way of celebrating lesser-known individuals or organizations that are working to create change in their local communities. The Elfen Works Award program aims to recognize those who have otherwise received little recognition– until now.
2010 In Harmony with HopeSM Award Honorees
Will Allen (Founder), Growing Power, growingpower.org
For most of the past two decades, Will Allen has been crusading to bring healthy, low-cost, sustainable food to the food deserts of our nation’s urban centers through his organization, Growing Power. From a 2.5-acre farm, located in the heart of Milwaukee, Allen is feeding the city’s poor, educating a nation of the benefits of urban farming, and mitigating racism by empowering the minority communities he serves. His holistic farming model incorporates innovative cultivation and distribution network design, including aquaculture, vermiculture, horticulture composting, soil reclamation, food distribution, beekeeping, and marketing. Growing Power also runs numerous collaborative projects, teen internships and training projects, which engage city youth in producing healthy foods for their communities.
Rosanne Haggerty (Founder), Common Ground, commonground.org
Rosanne Haggerty’s passionate belief in her ability to end homelessness is informed by an understanding that providing supportive housing to the most chronically homeless is the necessary first step. She marries a love of architecture, the savvy of a real estate developer, and the thorough analysis of a statistician with compassion to create affordable, attractive, and secure housing for the homeless and working poor. In all, she and her organization, Common Ground, have helped house 5,000 individuals in both historic, renovated buildings and in newly constructed buildings in and around New York. The 20-block area around Times Square experienced an 87% drop in homelessness following the opening of Common Ground’s first rehabilitated property. It’s a model that’s being replicated in cities across the country, and the world, and has inspired Common Ground’s national 100,000 Homes Campaign.
Rebecca Onie (Founder), Project Health, projecthealth.org
Rebecca Onie was just 17 when she lit upon a simple but powerful idea: college students could volunteer to work with physician/nurse mentors to locate critically needed social resources for children visiting the nation’s pediatric clinics. A medical approach will not always solve a child’s chronic health problems, if the family is making decisions between paying rent or putting food on the table—or paying for the prescription. Today, 600 student volunteers help 14,000 people obtain critically needed resources in 18 sites each year through Project HEALTH’s Family Help Desks. Just as importantly, a new generation of leaders is being training to change the system of health care delivery in this country.
2009 In Harmony with HopeSM Award Honorees
NON-VIOLENCE – Father Gregory Boyle, S.J. (Founder), Homeboy Industries, homeboy-industries.org
Father Greg’s Homeboy Industries is a one-stop shop for those who have decided to leave the world of gangs behind. It provides addiction and recovery programs, a full range of educational services, anger management training, etiquette and courtesy classes, day care programs (and parenting classes), job counseling and placement, and tattoo removal services. Two hundred former gang members help manage and run the entire operation, which includes a bakery, a café, and silkscreen, maintenance and retail shops that fund about a third of Homeboy Industries’ operations. For 20 years Fr. Greg has been a beacon of hope in a blighted landscape; his efforts have changed the lives of more than 100,000 people.
SUSTENANCE – Robert Egger (Founder), V3 & DC Central Kitchen, dccentralkitchen.org
Twenty years ago, Robert Egger founded the DC Central Kitchen and turned the food bank model on its head. Instead of providing a simple handout, Egger uses food as a vehicle for change: clients become employed cooks through the Kitchen’s Culinary Jobs Training Program; college students learn about service and business in the Campus Kitchens Project; and 4,500 of DC’s hungry are fed as the Kitchen recycles more than one ton of food every day. The Kitchen also provides street outreach and nutrition education for at-risk kids. Today, Egger also works to galvanize the nonprofit industry through V3, pushing for reform and a place on the national stage.
HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH – Rev. Peter G. Young (Founder), Peter Young Housing, Industries, and Treatment, pyhit.com
For half a century, Father Peter Young has helped inmates and parolees overcome their addictions. Peter Young Housing, Industries and Treatment (PYHIT) evolved out of Fr. Young’s firm belief that effective recovery is only possible if treatment is followed up with housing and jobs training. Fr. Young has forged successful public-private partnerships across New York State. The network of treatment, housing, and job training programs spans 100 sites. Three thousand people rely on services from PYHIT every day. PYHIT boasts a recidivism rate of less than 10 percent. In all, Fr. Young has helped hundreds of thousands move from addiction to becoming tax-paying members of society.
2008 In Harmony with HopeSM Award Honorees
NON-VIOLENCE – Lois Lee (Founder & Director), Children of the Night, childrenofthenight.org
Children of the Night has assisted more than 10,000 children between the ages of 11 and 17 who live on the streets and are forced into prostitution to pay for the food they eat and a place to sleep.
The organization runs a drop-in center, a hotline, and a residential program for 50-100 teens. The hotline receives nearly 30,000 calls from desperate kids annually.
HEALTH – Dr. Jack McConnell (Founder), Volunteers in Medicine, volunteersinmedicine.org
Jack McConnell created the first Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in 1994, when he paired a group of retired medical personnel who were searching for a way to continue practicing their profession with a large uninsured population on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Today, the Volunteers in Medicine Institute shepherds the replication of that program—there are 75 VIM clinics in 24 states whose 7,500 volunteers have delivered care to more than 120,000 uninsured Americans.
2007 In Harmony with HopeSM Award Honorees
HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH - Rosalynn Carter of The Carter Center,cartercenter.org
Rosalynn Carter has been a tireless advocate for such causes as early childhood immunization, human rights, and conflict resolution. Her pioneering work to reduce the stigma associated with mental health led her to create The Carter Center’s Mental Health Program. She has called depression a “pathway to poverty” and works ceaselessly to break that link.
NON-VIOLENCE – Joyce Dattner (Founder & Director), Bay Area All Stars, allstars.org
Joyce Dattner is dedicated to promoting human development through the use of an innovative performance-based model. Bay Area All Stars is at the forefront of a new trend in education, known as supplemental education, which recognizes outside-of-school learning opportunities as critical to urban children’s success in school and in life.
But they do more than simply “keep kids off the streets.” In the All-Stars Project, kids find a voice and learn how to make it heard. Shakespeare wrote that “all the world’s a stage.” All-Stars kids develop skills for the many roles they’ll play as engaged, responsible citizens of their own communities and the greater society.
SOCIAL JUSTICE – Dr. Paul Farmer (Co-Founder), Partners in Health, pih.org
Dr. Paul Farmer is a pioneer in bringing world-class medicine to the poor. Less known but equally important is PIH’s work in the United States. Working with inner-city HIV patients living in Boston, PIH is showing that change is possible in this country.
The program, which trains and hires community members to check in on HIV patients regularly, has achieved measurable success both in improving health status and in reducing costs.
EDUCATION – Paul Minorini (President & CEO) of Boys Hope Girls Hope, boyshopegirlshope.org
Paul Minorini is providing at-risk children with the support they need to reach their full potential. Boys Hope Girls Hope offers a stable environment with positive mentoring, a quality education, and support—financial, moral, and emotional. Based in Bridgeton, Missouri, Boys Hope Girls Hope currently serves children in 15 U.S. cities, plus Brazil Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru.
Elfen Works Award Honorees
Our Elfen Works Award is meant to serve as a grass-roots involvement-building tool. By enabling private citizens to nominate others they feel worthy of recognition, they may themselves be more likely to get involved in helping others.
To nominate an individual for an Elfen Works Award, please use our contact page to send an email and note the subject is a nomination for the award. Only nominations received by email will be considered (no telephone nominations please). Please include
- contact information for yourself (including email address)
- contact information for the nominee: include full name with proper spelling, mailing address for certificate, and the URL if possible of any the organization this individual is associated with
- reason you are making this nomination
From time to time, our team will review the nominations we collect and select candidates for recognition, and winners will be posted on this website, until the list is too long to include online. The first three recipients were honored on August 8th, 2007 [see award]. The following individuals have been selected for their positive contributions, their involvement, or their helping hand in the community:
- Prince William of Wales—for spending a winter night on the streets of a gritty London neighborhood to draw attention to the plight of the homeless
- Phil Lebherz—for educating consumers about their rights to basic health care coverage though the Foundation for Health Coverage Education
- Holly Carver, Crystal Brown, Cece Kaufman Himelstein, Erica Hunt, Michelle Parker & Linda Schaffer—for banding together and organizing opposition to continued cuts in the California state funding for education
- Phoebe Russell—for raising nearly $4,000 to benefit the San Francisco Food Bank–and she’s just a preschooler!
[more about Phoebe Russell] - John F. Mello—for his Food Bank Music CD
- Kermit Kubitz, Jonas Svallin and Dr. Sang-ick Chang—for bravely stepping in and saving a precious human life
- Ursula Morgenstern—for creating and continuing Backpackpalooza [more about backpackpalooza]
- …your nominee here?
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