NEW YORK — The winners of Fast Company’s 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards were announced recently, honoring the businesses, policies, projects and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to flattening the curve when it comes to the climate crisis, social injustice or economic inequality.
Mature Resources Foundation, a non-profit subsidiary of the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging Inc., was named a finalist in the “Spaces, Places and Cities” category, for its project, The Village of Hope.
The Village of Hope is an intentional community, designed to enrich the well-being of individuals living with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, grandparents raising grandchildren and adults with disabilities by providing supportive, affordable housing with cutting-edge technology in a culture of reciprocity.
This community will capitalize on the health and wellness associated with green spaces and creative expression, where elders will reap the benefits of multi-generational inclusivity while aging in place with community supports and neighbors of all ages and abilities engaged together.
The Village of Hope is located in LeContes Mills, Pa, on the site of a decommissioned school property.
Now in its fourth year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 26 winners, more than 200 finalists and more than 500 honorable mentions—with Health and Wellness, Corporate Social Responsibility, and AI and Data among the most popular categories.
A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 3,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology and more. The 2020 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Vancouver to Singapore to Tel Aviv.
Illustrating how some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and companies are addressing grave global challenges, Fast Company’s May/June issue celebrates, among others, an electric engine for airplanes that eliminates emissions from flights—and expensive fuel from the tricky financial calculus of the airline industry; a solar-powered refrigerator that finally frees people in remote villages from daily treks to distant markets, transforming the economics of those households; an online marketplace that connects food companies with farms to buy ugly and surplus produce to fight waste; and an initiative to offset all of the carbon costs of shipping, creating a new model for e-commerce sustainability.
“In collaboration with Dr. Bill Thomas founder of Minka Homes and the MAGIC (multi-ability, multi-generational inclusive cohousing) concept, the Village of Hope will provide a new option for individuals to age in place in their community rather than in an institutional setting. Formal and informal supports will be coordinated to facilitate aging with dignity, choice and self-determination in life and at the end of life” says Kathleen Gillespie, chief executive officer of CCAAA.
“There seems no better time to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, resources and, in some cases, their scale to tackle society’s biggest problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company.
“Our journalists, under the leadership of senior editor Morgan Clendaniel, have uncovered some of the smartest and most inspiring projects of the year.”