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Encore Agenda

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The Encore Agenda
Encore Service and Encore Fellowships
Expanding Educational Opportunity
Removing Obstacles to Encore Careers
Reforming Social Security
State and Local Innovation

Encore Agenda Forum

Help state and federal policymakers create ways to tap the talent of experienced Americans. The Encore Agenda draws on innovations in national service, workforce development, entitlement reform, pension policy and higher education. For more background information, see the full Encore Agenda section.

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Serve America Act: Historic Day for Encore Careers

Posted 04/21/2009 - 10:54am

“We need your service right now, at this moment in history. I’m asking you to stand up and play your part. I’m asking you to help change history’s course, put your shoulder up against the wheel. If you do, I promise you your life will be richer, our country will be stronger, and someday, years from now, you may remember it as the moment when your own story and the American story converged, when they came together, and we met the challenges of our new century.

—President Barack Obama, April 21, 2009

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

The Encore Agenda

David Cohen: First 100 Days Launches Adventure in Citizenship

Posted 04/28/2009 - 11:07am

Editor's note: David Cohen, a senior advisor to Civic Ventures, has been an advocate and strategist on many of the major social justice and political reform issues in the United States since the early 1960s.

Among the achievements of the first 100 days of President Obama and his Administration, I believe the signing into law of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act represents a singular breakthrough with immeasurable promise for the President, his Administration and the American people.

by: David Cohen | Read more >>

Encore Careers for Recovery and Renewal

Posted 02/03/2009 - 4:18pm

President Obama hasn’t (yet) championed an encore careers initiative, but pieces of such an agenda already are emerging in the administration’s plans and proposals. (For more on the rationale for such an encore careers initiative, see “Social + Security = Encore Careers.”)

by: Cal Halvorsen | Read more >>

Encore Service and Encore Fellowships

A Quick Summary of a Quiet Revolution in National Service

Posted 03/26/2009 - 8:15am

How Does the Serve America Act (S. 277) Affect Americans in the Second Half of Life?

Later this month, President Obama is likely to sign major bipartisan legislation that will dramatically expand national service opportunities for all and will include, for the first time in decades, policy innovations and new service opportunities for those who have finished their midlife careers.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Encore Careers for America: Serve America Act Creates New Opportunities

Posted 04/07/2009 - 3:20pm

“Older Americans who want to help solve the nation’s social problems will soon have even more opportunities to do so,” The New York Times reports.

“The legislation creates for the first time a series of programs that will help direct retirees into new roles in nonprofit and public service, on the front lines and in management,” adds The Wall Street Journal.

Media coverage of the Serve America Act reflects the growing nationwide enthusiasm — born of both choice and economic necessity — for tapping the talents and experience of aging baby boomers to tackle the nation’s increasingly urgent challenges.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Discussion: A New Era of Service?

Posted 01/26/2009 - 12:51pm

How important do you consider the revival and expansion of national service? Might national service opportunities generally, and Encore Fellowships specifically, help people make the transition to their encore careers? How could the service experience be improved and made more relevant to older adults?

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Expanding Educational Opportunity

Lifelong Learning Accounts legislation introduced

Posted 05/19/2008 - 11:31am

Individuals and employers would get tax credits and other incentives to save money for the training and education needed to launch their encore careers under the Lifelong Learning Accounts Act of 2008, introduced by Reps. Rahm Emanuel and Jim Ramstad.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Removing Obstacles to Encore Careers

Rewarding longer working lives

Posted 04/29/2008 - 11:53am

We’ve complained that politicians seem to prefer sticks to carrots when it comes to encouraging people to extend their working lives.

Senators Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) are offering some carrots, in the form of The Incentives for Older Workers Act. The bill would extend the Social Security bonus for recipients who postpone claiming their benefits beyond the “normal” retirement age. The change could mean bigger monthly checks — for life — for those who choose to keep working.

by: Terry Nagel | Read more >>

Reforming Social Security

Hard Times Knock Over the Three-Legged Stool of Retirement

Posted 04/07/2009 - 5:23pm

We already knew that the economic downturn has kicked the stuffing out of our savings. Now comes a spate of bad news about the other two legs of what has long been called three-legged stool of retirement finance: Social Security and pensions.

Rising unemployment and falling payroll tax revenues mean the Social Security surplus is likely to all but vanish next year, nearly a decade ahead of schedule. And public pension funds lost nearly $1 trillion as investments tanked in the last year.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

The Tyranny of Dead Ideas in the 'Boomer Entitlement' debate

Posted 02/18/2009 - 4:34pm

In his new column on Politico, Matt Miller identifies President Obama’s most important task: “To clear out the cobwebs in the American mind.”

Miller, a senior adviser at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., takes a strong broom to some of those cobwebs himself in his provocative new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. I caught up with Miller recently to ask him about “dead” and “destined” ideas in the looming debate over baby boomer “entitlement” spending.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

Discussion: New Thinking About Entitlements

Posted 01/25/2009 - 9:36am

To help erase the Social Security gap, President Obama should look to tens of millions of baby boomers who want to extend their working lives with encore careers that answer his call for “a new era of responsibility.” Let’s collect ideas for policymakers who want to realize a win-win-win of fiscal responsibility, retirement security and social renewal.

by: David Bank | Read more >>

State and Local Innovation

States Tapping Boomers' Skills

Posted 02/22/2008 - 8:41am

A front-page story in USA Today features a new policy paper from Civic Ventures that describes new state policies and programs to engage experienced adults in meaningful work and community service.

“The most interesting and innovative policy work on the aging of America is taking place at the state level,” said John Gomperts, president of Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank that issued the report. “From Sacramento to Annapolis, state legislatures are shifting the focus from the same old doom and gloom scenario to a much more complex and hopeful picture.”

by: David Bank | Read more >>