Do you know someone over the age of 60 who is engaged in an encore career?  Encore careers combine personal meaning and social impact with continued work in the second half of life.

Ann Higdon isn’t your average baby boomer.  Inspired by her own difficult childhood, she’s now running a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged teens in Dayton, Ohio, turn their lives around. She’s also one of 10 people to win the 2009 Purpose Prize for changing lives – starting with her own.

The 2010 Purpose Prize is accepting nominations, including self-nominations, at Encore Careers by March 5, 2010.

The eligibility criteria:

• Be at least 60 years old (by the deadline of March 5, 2010).
• Be a legal resident of the U.S. (including U.S. territories).
• Be someone who has initiated important innovations (in a new or ongoing organization) in an encore career.
• Be currently working in a leadership capacity in an organization or institution (public, private, nonprofit, or for-profit) to address a major social problem in the United States or abroad.
• Have initiated important innovations (in a new or ongoing organization), and have demonstrated recent creativity and leadership with the promise of more to come.

Ann’s organization, Improved Solutions for Urban Systems (ISUS), helps high school dropouts get their degrees and build careers.  Her students not only get a high school education, they also learn job skills in health care, computer operation and construction. Many students take their training and use it to improve their community, such as building homes in run-down neighborhoods.

The Purpose Prize is looking for 10 people over age 60 to win up to $100,000 each to support their work solving some of our most pressing social issues – from health care to the environment, poverty to education.

 Find out more about criteria and eligibility at Encore Careers.