Despite difficult economic times, volunteering has increased dramatically in the past few years. A recent study found that the number of Americans volunteering in their communities increased by 1.6 million in 2009 – the largest increase in six years. Stephen Anfield's volunteering gig at AARP eventually led to a part-time job there. His experience at AARP helped him land full-time work promoting encore careers at Civic Ventures.
Yes, Americans are getting older. But that creates opportunities for baby boomers looking for an encore career. “As tens of millions of people live into their 80s and 90s, we’ll need millions of others in their 50s and 60s and 70s to help care for them – not just within families, but through second careers,” says Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures.
 |
| Hank Smith , Morgan Community College |
Morgan Community College
Nearly 40 years ago, Hank Smith graduated from high school, joined the Navy and briefly attended nursing school, even taking on a health care job while in the service.
As much as he enjoyed the health field, Smith left the Navy and got an entry-level job at the U.S. Postal Service. He worked his way up from mail processing to retail associate to local Postmaster and, then, at 55, he retired – in part, to help care for his mother.
Encore career, second act, bridge job – what burnt-out boomer doesn’t love the idea of a late-life career switch, new enough to be interesting and lucrative enough to make a full retirement financially possible? Stories of transition show how hard it really is. What can be done to make the transition as smooth as possible?
Every day, 8,000 Americans turn 60 and many can expect 100-year life spans. The length of retirement for centenarians could be more than 30 years. Not everyone finds the prospect of three decades of leisure time enviable, much less sensible. For Marc Freedman, author of The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife, it is also an egregious waste of the talent and experience accumulated by nearly 80 million boomers.
Millions of Americans are looking for work, and some 400,000 apply for unemployment benefits each week. Thousands more have exhausted all their jobless benefits. So when some companies posted open jobs, and stated the unemployed need not apply, a firestorm erupted. Now Congress is getting involved. Marci Alboher, vice president at Civic Ventures, weighs in on the issues.
We celebrate individuals from time to time for breaking new ground or delivering creative, efficient solutions to public problems. But rarely do we pay attention to where tomorrow's innovators will come from. At City Year and Civic Ventures, this "new pipeline" approach is built into the mission of our organizations. We share an expectation that we should be engaging people in solving, or building capacity to solve, their communities' problems.
Older workers, the argument goes, are “sucking the oxygen out of the atmosphere.” Any job found is one that a younger person will be denied; any social support received for this stage of life is one they won’t get for theirs – and will have to pay for later." Suzanne Braun Levine, author of Father Courage: What Happens When Men Put Family First and Civic Ventures board member, discusses work-family conflict.
Americans 55 and older are more likely to be worried or even angry about the state of their finances than they were before the recession, but poll results released Tuesday suggest their confidence is making a rebound. The survey by Harris Interactive also shows that as baby boomers arrive at retirement's doorstep, they intend to do what they have always done: change the definition and expectations of yet another stage of life.
Volunteer Orientation for the Boomers Leading Change in Health Nonprofit
Boomers Leading Change in Health serves as a resource to the community in matters related to health and health care.
Start: 05/25/2011 - 10 a.m.
End: 05/25/2011 - 11 a.m.
