DeKALB | NIU’s Allan Barsema has been named one of Civic Ventures‘ 10 winners of this years’ Purpose Prize.

According to an NIU Today press release, the Purpose Prize is the only recognition for social entrepreneurs over the age of 60, and awards a prize of $100,000 to each winner. The award looks for outstanding candidates who “are using their experience and passion to make an extraordinary impact on society’s biggest challenges.”

Barsema is known for founding two non-profit organizations in Rockford; Carpenter’s Place, a center for the homeless, and Community Collaboration, Inc., “a not-for-profit software provider that has developed an online system to coordinate social services, first in Rockford and now expanded into five other states.”

Barsema now works at NIU’s Outreach’s Center for Governmental Studies as a research employee for the center’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He also developed a degree program for social entrepreneurship at NIU.

“I am very honored to receive this prize,” Barsema said in the press release. “The successes of Carpenter’s Place and Community Collaboration, Inc. demonstrate how people can indeed rebuild their lives when we look at the whole person and work collaboratively to help them.”

He said part of the prize money will be invested in his new project “‘One Body Collaboratives,’ which builds upon the existing efforts by mobilizing church and faith-based resources to collaborate more effectively to address individual, family and community needs,'” Barsema said in the press release.

Barsema was one of 10 winners out of a pool of more than 1,400 nominees. Five others received $50,000 awards.