Encore Opportunity Awards: Tackling Challenges with Encore Talent
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Handypeople and others over age 50 help older adults and disabled persons in Schenectady, New York, stay in their homes by doing chores and driving them to appointments. In the sheriff’s department in Lawrenceville, Georgia, people in their encore careers make up one-quarter of the sworn and civilian staff, helping to mentor younger employees in addition to their regular work.
These organizations, along with other winners of the 2009 Encore Opportunity Awards announced today, are tackling social challenges with the help of workers over age 50. The awards, sponsored by Civic Ventures and MetLife Foundation, honor employers who make it easier for experienced workers to transition to encore careers.
The eight winners are using encore talent to advance public safety, build low-income housing, teach job skills, protect the environment and more. Six of them are employers who are hiring and retaining people in encore careers as part of their workforce. Two operate programs that help employers find encore career seekers by connecting the supply of encore talent with social purpose work that needs to be done. They are:
- Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals, Minneapolis – This nonprofit pays Native American “elders” to work with young children to pass along native languages and a sense of culture.
- Civitan Foundation Inc., Phoenix – Civitan’s Caring Connections program engages encore workers as direct caregivers serving people with disabilities.
- Executive Service Corps of Chicago, Chicago – This organization recruits, trains and places retired nonprofit executives in interim director positions in Chicago-area nonprofits.
- Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Department, Lawrenceville, Georgia – This public safety agency recruits and employs encore workers to fill jobs at all levels.
- Habitat for Humanity of Lake-Sumter Florida Inc., Eustis, Florida – Half of this organization’s staff is over age 50. Habitat provides homes for people living in substandard and overcrowded conditions.
- National Center for Appropriate Technology, Butte, Montana – Experienced workers help people in six states use environmentally sound, energy-efficient methods in farming.
- Orleans Technical Institute, a division of JEVS Human Services, Philadelphia – This technical training school employs retirees from the building trades to provide training and individualized support to at-risk students.
- Umbrella of the Capital District, Schenectady, New York – To help older adults and persons with disabilities live independently in their own homes, this nonprofit recruits 50-plus workers with the appropriate technical skills as “handypeople” for light carpentry, lawn and garden maintenance, house cleaning and transportation to appointments.
In 2007 MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures first honored nonprofit and public sector employers with what was then called the BreakThrough Awards. The inaugural winners similarly exhibited successful strategies for finding, hiring and maximizing workers over 50.
Read more about the 2009 Encore Opportunity Award winners.
Learn 10 practical strategies to help your organization make the most of encore talent.
Read Marci Alboher’s blog about the Encore Opportunity Awards ceremony.
Download (PDF) the stories of all eight winners.
Read the press release about the Encore Opportunity Awards that are given by Civic Ventures, with support from the MetLife Foundation.
Read an Overview and FAQs about the Encore Opportunity Awards.
Read about the 2007 winners of the BreakThrough Awards.
- Terry Nagel's blog
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- by Terry Nagel
Fast Company expert blogger
Fast Company expert blogger Cali Yost blogs about the Encore Opportunity Awards, saying, “There are four major work+life fit transitions that spark a fundamental rethinking of the way work fits into the rest of life: parenthood, illness, elder care, and retirement.
“Historically, our response to each of these reset points has been very black and white: I’m either working or I’m not working. But that’s changing in the new work+life flex normal, especially as it relates to traditional ‘retirement.’ One of the groups creating a modern vision of a purpose-driven retirement is Civic Ventures with their Encore Careers, or ‘paid jobs that offer meaning and the chance to make a social impact.’”
She adds, “Imagine what the world would be like if instead of planning for ‘retirement,’ we all planned for our encore career? With the leadership of organizations like Civic Ventures, new, more flexible visions of work+life fit in our later years will become the norm. Do you have examples of retirement redefined?
“As Marc Freedman pointed out in his BusinessWeek article, there are real structural changes that need to occur before encore careers can thrive. What other shifts have to be made personally, organizationally and in public policy?”