Editor’s note: This post was written by Robin Morris, national programs and initiatives coordinator at the National Constitution Center for the center’s blog, Constitution Daily.

On April 5, 75 people filled a conference room in the National Constitution Center to think about how an engaged citizenry can do work that helps realize the Founding Fathers’ vision of “a more perfect Union.”

So many Americans are finding themselves in a new stage of life. They are neither young nor old. They still have much to contribute but don’t always know how.

Does that describe you?

For many Americans, retirement doesn’t mean the end of work.

But it can mean a chance to try something fulfilling, such as an encore career, without having to earn as much.

With so many boomers looking for something new – and meaningful – to do with their talent, an array of organizations is showing the way.

The Harvard University Kennedy School of Government recently explored this phenomenon with a webinar called “New Pipelines for Social Innovation: The Changing Face of Recruitment, Opportunities and Impact.”

Registered nurses looking for encores that will keep them in the nursing profession can check out two new online resources about adding to their credentials.

RN to MSN Online has compiled a list of schools that have programs through which registered nurses may earn a Master of Science in Nursing, or MSN. Such a degree can be a gateway to serving as a nurse administrator, nurse educator, nurse practitioner and other such positions.

Here’s a great opportunity for experienced, corporate professionals in California's Central Valley to break into nonprofit health care that serves those most in need.

The Encore Fellows in California Community Clinics program, sponsored by the California HealthCare Foundation, is placing skilled professionals at the end of their midlife careers into clinics and consortia that help the underserved and uninsured.

Workers 50 and older interested in encore careers that combine personal meaning, social impact and continued income are increasingly looking to community colleges to develop new skills or build on existing ones. Many aim to transition to such fields as education, health care, social services or the green economy.

Past recipients of Encore College Initiative grants have created many educational pathways to encore careers with the understanding that boomers typically learn differently from younger students and have unique needs.

When their main careers begin to wind down and their children are grown, some women begin to ponder public service as an encore career. From the amount of attention paid to female “stars” in politics, such as Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi and Olympia Snowe, you might think there are lots of American women in public office.

I loved the attitude and no-nonsense practical advice of Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women, so I got on the phone and tried to reach the book’s authors, Bernice Bratter and Helen Dennis. There we were – three longtime career women with more than 100 years of professional experience, and none of us could make the conference call feature work on our home telephones.