Retire poor? Grind away at your current job? Find part-time work that a teenager could (and probably wants to) do? Many Americans planning their next stage of life want better choices.

One such choice is an encore career, a category that recognizes that what many people want from work changes after midlife.

Intel is the first company to make Encore Fellowships – paid, part-time, yearlong assignments working at local nonprofits – available to all of its eligible pre-retiree employees nationwide.

It’s a bold move that could signal a sea change in corporate retirement benefits and bring a new wave of talent into the nonprofit sector.

Recently we asked you to check out a column by New York Times columnist David Brooks, who asked for “a brief report on your life so far, an evaluation of what you did well, of what you did not so well and what you learned along the way.” (Read his column here.) We asked you to share your enc

Mix a slow economy and a shortage of jobs with a large number of aging boomers looking for meaning and purpose in their work. The result is a growing number of “encore entrepreneurs” seeking to launch income-generating ventures that make a positive difference in their communities.

New research released by Encore.org (formerly Civic Ventures) and funded by MetLife Foundation shows:

We have an opportunity to tell millions about the benefits of encore careers, but we need your help.

David Brooks, a columnist at The New York Times, recently asked folks over 70 to send him “a gift.”

Here’s what he wrote:

Today President Obama honored an exclusive group of Americans who have lifted the lives of people struggling and suffering around the world.

Just 13 people received the Presidential Citizens Medal – a prestigious civilian honor second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom – at a White House ceremony this afternoon.

And three of them are Purpose Prize winners.

Heard any good news about the job market lately?

I didn’t think so.

So here’s a bit of good news to hang on to: Idealist.org, a popular nonprofit jobs site, reports that most nonprofits are “cautiously optimistic” about hiring and believe the worst economic times may be over.

Early in 2011, Idealist reached out to thousands of organizations to see how they were dealing with “the financial crisis that hit our sector in the fall of 2008,” and to gauge their feelings about the future.

Sometimes the hardest part about preparing for an encore career in the nonprofit sector is knowing where to begin.

The second hardest part? Selling yourself.

I hope these resources are just what you need to get over the hump.

This year President Obama is awarding the Presidential Citizens Medal to just 13 people. And three of them – picked from 6,000 nominees – are Purpose Prize winners.

“This year’s recipients of the Citizens Medal come from different backgrounds, but they share a commitment to a cause greater than themselves,” Obama said in a statement. “They exemplify the best of what it means to be an American.”