Conchy Bretos, a $100,000 Purpose Prize winner in 2006, moderated the encore careers panel at the University of Kentucky's annual Summer Series on Aging. Photo by Civic Ventures.

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At recent gatherings in Yonkers, N.Y., and Lexington, Ky., encore careerists cited financial and family support and continued training as key factors contributing to the success of encore careers. But the most important ingredient, they said, was passion for a cause.

For 2006 Purpose Prize winner Robert Chambers, who was honored June 30 by President Obama at the White House, the urge to serve was generated by his frustration at seeing low-income people being offered bad deals at car dealerships. Encore careerist Mattye Willis was tired of women not knowing their health risks and options with breast cancer, and former nonprofit employer Kathy Gannoe was tired of seeing too few advocates for long-term care facility residents and their families. Gannoe helped the Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass, Inc. win a 2007 BreakThrough Award for creating encore career opportunities.

More than 200 people, including nonprofit and public practitioners in the fields of aging, social work, health care and education, as well as researchers and policy makers, attended an event at the University of Kentucky in Lexington on June 24. The panel, which featured Chambers, Willis and Gannoe, discussed what's needed for success in encore careers as part of the university's Summer Series on Aging. Conchy Bretos, a 2006 $100,000 Purpose Prize winner, served as moderator.

Another encore event, cosponsored by the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation and Civic Ventures in Yonkers, N.Y., on June 9 attracted more than 100 attendees. It featured 2008 $100,000 Purpose Prize winner Mark Goldsmith, as well as Purpose Prize Fellows Richard Cherry, Emira Habiby Browne and Lois Steinberg.

Steinberg, who is the program director at the Medicare Rights Center in Westchester County, New York, offered suggestions on how employers can appropriately lead encore careerist "intrapreneurs" - those who make innovative changes within already existing organizations - without stifling them. She helped guide the successful creation of SOS Medicare (Seniors Speaking Out), a program that helps to mobilize older volunteers to provide health care counseling and information on health rights and benefits to middle- and lower-income older adults in senior centers, clubs and religious institutions.

Among the key takeaways at the two events were:

• Continued training builds your skills. Chambers noted that even though he has had a successful life and career, he didn’t know how to teach financial management to the clients his organization serves with low-income car loans. So he took “train the trainer” courses in financial literacy.
• Family and financial support are indispensable. Willis noted that she needed to leave her job – where she was happy and had good insurance – to take a job that paid a similar salary but was funded from a grant and had much less insurance. Her husband didn’t understand at first, but when she told him how important the new job was to her, he supported her 100 percent. Chambers discussed how his encore career pays less than half of what he earned previously, but said the rewards far outweigh the consequences.
• Potential intrapreneurs shouldn’t take “no” for an answer; they need to continually find out how their ideas can fulfill the organization’s mission and present their case to the supervisor. Habiby Browne noted, “I never was able to accept the status quo.”
• Employers need to be open-minded and open to change.
• A culture of good communication and trust is critical for ensuring good employer-employee relationships.