2007 Purpose Prize Winner: Gordon Johnson

Gordon Johnson is one of the winners of the 2007 Purpose Prize put on by Civic Ventures.

Gordon Johnson remembers well the day in his teenage years when his father took in two nieces and two nephews whose father couldn't raise them. The upheaval and evident lack of concern by state case workers sparked a lifelong commitment to care for abused and neglected children. For more than 20 years, Johnson led statewide public foster care programs, seeing time and again the trauma of children being taken from their homes, often compounded by the distressing separation of siblings.

In 1998, Johnson, took matters in his own hands, moved to Florida and started Neighbor To Family, a private nonprofit foster care agency for children that focuses on keeping siblings together in foster care. In addition, Neighbor To Family has pioneered several other innovative strategies outside the confines of traditional state-run programs. Foster parents become stable employees of the nonprofit, held to a higher standard of accountability and paid a modest salary and benefits. And supportive teams - of biological and foster parents, therapists and caseworkers - are assigned to each child to work out the best long-term strategy.

Over the years, Neighbor To Family has helped 4,500 children, 4,100 of whom have been siblings. These children have spent 75 percent less time in foster homes than children in state-run programs. In recent years, Neighbor To Family has opened similar programs in four states - Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia.

Learn more about Gordon here: www.purposeprize.org/finalists/finalists2007/johnson.cfm

Visit his website: www.neighbortofamily.org