The winners of the $25,000 Community College Encore Career Grants include:

Baltimore City Community College (Baltimore, MD) will use an executive outplacement model to help African-American women over age 50 develop individual plans to transition into encore careers.

Broward Community College (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) will do extensive marketing—including free seminars and career counseling—to inform boomers about local encore career and service opportunities.

Central Piedmont Community College (Charlotte, NC) will design and deliver a leadership training program to support boomers interested in transitioning from careers in the for-profit to the non-profit sector.

Coastline Community College (Fountain Valley, CA) will develop and offer online and classroom courses for those over 50 preparing for careers in gerontology and elder-care.

Collin County Community College (Allen, TX) will train boomers who have been laid off from engineering and technology careers—and other boomers interested in teaching—to become certified high school math teachers in one year.

GateWay Community College (Phoenix, AZ) will join forces with local employers to help boomers transition to careers as caregivers. Employers will provide instructors, tuition support and flexible jobs.

Owensboro Community and Technical College (Owensboro, KY) will train retiring nurses to become adjunct nursing faculty at the community college level. (The national nursing shortage can be traced, in part, to a shortage of nursing faculty.)

Portland Community College (Portland, OR) will establish a peer mentoring program for students over 50 enrolled in the college’s gerontology certificate or degree program to improve support for older students and to boost retention.

Virginia Community College System (Richmond, VA) will launch a statewide recruitment effort to attract more boomers with college degrees to their existing statewide, fast-track teacher licensure programs. Partners include the state’s 23 community colleges, the Virginia Dept. of Education and K-12 schools.

Washtenaw Community College (Ann Arbor, MI) will develop outreach and support programs for mid-career professionals who want to use their training and business experience to help solve societal problems.