HUGH PRICE: Mobilize Retired Physicians to Fight Childhood Obesity

01/23/2008 - 05:10:07pm

Image from HealthyBodyWeight.com

Hugh Price is calling for retired physicians and healthcare workers to join a "crusade" to combat childhood obesity.

Price, the former head of the National Urban League and now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, makes a compelling case that the need is both massive and urgent, with more than 25 million overweight and obese children headed for a life of serious health problems -- at a huge cost to society.

BOOMER MEDIA MANIA: No signs of slowing

01/08/2008 - 03:42:58pm

illustration by Felix Sockwell/The New York Times.

It started in earnest in 2006, when the first baby boomers (born in 1946) turned 60. This year they're turning 62 (and thus eligible for Social Security), setting off another round of media coverage.

This time, perhaps by virtue of the fact that so much has already been said, reporters and commentators appear to be offering deeper reporting and more nuanced perspectives.

DALLAS MORNING NEWS: Baby boomers go back to college

01/04/2008 - 01:51:39pm

Leigh Hoes, 51, trained to become a pharmacy technician in a one-year program at Richland College. She plans to work into her 60s or 70s. Photo by Randy Eli Grothe/Dallas Morning News.

Boomers are "rebooting" at Richland College in Dallas, one of the new wave of community colleges that are reshaping their programs to meet the new needs of career-switching baby boomers.

EDITOR'S ENCORE: Mentors for at-risk youth

01/03/2008 - 10:48:40am

Susan L. Taylor. Photo by Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Susan Taylor's decision to leave Essence magazine to devote herself to the youth mentoring program she founded illustrates a recurring feature of many encore careers: what was once secondary becomes primary, and what was once primary becomes secondary.

The New York Times reported that Taylor, 61 years old, sent an email to her staff explaining, "I will be leaving Essence to do what at this juncture in my life has become a larger work for me — building the National Cares Mentoring Movement, which I founded as Essence Cares and today is my deepest passion."

DON'T DROWN IN ENCORE EMAIL!

01/02/2008 - 03:21:03pm

The exciting discussions emerging on Encore.org bring with them an annoying downside — a flood of email notifications about every new posting or comment.

It has always been possible (and still is) to turn off ALL email from Encore.org.

Now we have a new option — a ‘digest’ of postings and comments from each of your Encore groups that we will send out as a single e-mail from each group on a regular basis, probably weekly.

National service on the national agenda

12/18/2007 - 05:23:19pm

Photo by Christian Witkin/TIME

Universal national service – the notion that everybody who wants to serve the country or the community should have the opportunity to do so – is getting a surprising amount of attention on the presidential campaign trail.

Time magazine queued up the issue with a cover story last summer, and now several leading candidates have embraced it.

CONFERENCE BOARD: Reinventing an Aging Workforce

12/13/2007 - 01:48:05pm

Dean McDermott is looking ahead to his next career. Photo by Jeffrey MacMillan/USNews & World Report.

Smart companies can turn the aging of the American workforce from a liability to a strategic opportunity if they plan carefully, concludes a new report from the Conference Board, the business research organization.

Industries that are already facing acute talent shortages have done the most to prepare for the demographic shift, says Mary B. Young, a senior research associate at the Conference Board and author of the report. The Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD), for example, pools research, resources and best practices across the industry, she says.

AL GORE: "I have a purpose here today"

12/10/2007 - 03:50:21pm

Al Gore's speech accepting the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was all about purpose.

"I have a purpose here today," Gore began. "It is a purpose I have tried to serve for many years. I have prayed that God would show me a way to accomplish it."

We have written previously about Gore's post-electoral career as a "blueprint for people who see themselves more as citizens than seniors,” in the words of columnist Ellen Goodman.

BUSINESS WEEK: Helping Boomers Give Back

12/10/2007 - 02:50:52pm

2007 Purpose Prize winner Gordon Johnson

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Marc Freedman defines encore careers as 'give-back careers' and challenges boomers to answer the call for a higher purpose.

Freedman called for policy changes that make encore careers easier to find and for more programs such as Troops to Teachers, which trains veterans for second careers in teaching.

BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS: Ranks of older workers growing fast

12/06/2007 - 11:07:16am

(Editor's note: Civic Ventures issued this release highlighting the recent BLS report.)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report this week that has significant, under-reported implications for the future of the American workforce.

The BLS report includes two critical findings:

• The number of workers 55 and older is projected to grow by 46.7 percent, nearly 5.5 times the 8.5 percent growth projected for the labor force overall.
• The percentage of workers 55 and older in the American workforce is expected to increase from 16.8 percent in 2006 to 22.7 percent in 2016. At that time, nearly one in four American workers will be over 55 — creating what will likely be the biggest transformation of the labor force since the women’s movement.