Posted 06/06/2007 - 10:58:14am by Phyllis Segal
Some highlights from the May 31 announcement of the MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures BreakThrough Awards at the National Press Club:
- Darlene Stone, Vice President of Leesburg Regional Medical Center, described the assortment of flexible options and benefits they've created to attract 50+ workers and the workforce needs driving their strategy.
- Claire Altman, ReServe's CEO , talked about the skepticism she encounters when recruiting employers to hire ReServists. She overcomes disbelief that talented people would work for $10 per hour (the "overqualified" concern) by introducing them to a ReServist who, after a successful career as a corporate HR professional is now directing HR for ReServe.
- Lester Strong, executive of the BELL Foundation, described the important work ReServists are doing for BELL, which is itself an award winning youth development program. BELL is looking to expand the 50+ workforce in what has traditionally been an organization with almost exclusively young employees.
- Shelly Glazer, who runs UC Berkeley's Retiree Work Opportunities program, offered to share the temporary employment/recruitment website the university designed to create a way to easily bring back its retirees. Irma Smith, a Berkeley retiree who has had five consecutive assignments through the website, who described one of her postings to fill the gap during the medical leave of a permanent employee.
The announcement was accompanied by the release of a report from The Conference Board, "Boomers are Ready for Nonprofits, but are Nonprofits Ready for Them?" The BreakThrough report from the Metlife Foundation and Civic Ventures includes profiles of the 10 winners.
Thanks to all the winners for the great work they do and to all the people who made the first BreakThrough awards a success. On behalf of all at Civic Ventures, our appreciation for your support of this effort to establish a new stage of work that will create dividends for America.
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Congratulations on launching the BreakThrough Awards!!!!
To the entire Civic Ventures team:
Congratulations on this success! It's great to see your ideas coming to fruition and the press picking up on the need for nonprofit organizations to attract employees from those in the 50+ cohort. It was a pleasure helping to judge the nominees for this project. We at Bridgestar will look for continuing opportunities to connect with Civic Ventures in the days to come. As you probably know, we are happy to be collaborating on the Encore Careers web site connected to Marc's new book.
Best of luck with the BreakThrough Awards in the years to come!
David Simms
Managing Partner, Bridgestar
www.bridgstar.org
Snapshots from the BreakThrough briefing
I thought I'd share some quick impressions from the National Press Club event.
First, the place was packed! We started with 50 chairs, added 25 more, and people were still standing in the back. The late arrivals stood in line at the food table, nervously eying the dwindling muffin supply. We had just enough.
It was interesting to see how many generations were woven together in the audience. The reporter on my right was a hip twenty-something sporting jeans and a scruffy beard. Three rows in front of us were two immaculate, older gentlemen representing Troops to Teachers. Off to their left there was an eager young man who was working for the National Council on Aging. Young staffers from the BreakThrough Award winners were sitting next to their older colleagues, the encorees who were the stars of the show. There was even a baby there, gurgling happily in her carriage.
It was my first time inside the National Press Club, so before the briefing I took the chance to peek around a bit. The halls were lined with candid photos of famous people from various events at the Club. One photo was of Helen Thomas, who at age 56 was named one of the "25 Most Influential Women in America" by the World Almanac. That was in 1976. She's now in her late 80's and still one of the sharpest reporters on Capital Hill. Nearby was a photo of Hamid Karzai, who at the age of 46 became the first democratically elected leader of Afghanistan. Heck, there was even one of George Clooney, who is now - even as he marches through his late 40's – taking on new movies and leveraging his fame to bring attention to the situation in Darfur.
Out to pasture at 50? That's when these people were just getting rolling.