Two women who won the Purpose Prize, awarded annually to a few select social innovators over age 60, demonstrate why community matters.
Marilyn Gaston and Gayle Porter are health professionals who decided to do something about the fact that African-American women are dying at high rates, mostly from preventable causes. They wrote a book called Prime Time: The African American Woman’s Complete Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness. But the book alone didn’t do the trick, so they launched Prime Time Sister Circles, described as “part health course on exercise, nutrition, and stress, and part support group.”
Of the 130 women who have participated in the pilots, 68 percent have kept up their health improvements for more than a year. They were invited to the White House today, and President Obama recognized their efforts.
Information got the pair’s project started, but community kept it going. An online community can do the same for other causes, providing people with similar goals and interests a vital mix of information and encouragement.
