Suzanne Braun Levine
Encore.org

Last week I spent an exhilarating evening exploring the Encore message with Marci Alboher and close to 200 people who had come to the New York Public Library to find out more about her book The Encore Career Handbook. In our presentation, Marci covered the nuts and bolts of how to envision and find work that matters to you in the second half of life, and I tried to connect the Encore Movement with the Women’s Movement – in which I have spent both halves of my working life.

Given the realities of the times, it was no surprise that most of the audience were out of work and many were getting discouraged. Marci’s pointers, exercises, and – most of all – true stories were just what they needed to hear.

The message to everyone looking to change or find work was: be resourceful and don’t dismiss any options that present themselves. We were all especially taken with three of the folks interviewed in Marci Alboher’s book who showed up: Judy who loved animals and photography, volunteered at the Central Park Zoo and was eventually hired as a photo documentarian; Fred a retired parole officer, had a series of encores in criminal justice and now works part-time in a completely new field, as a health navigator at the Hospital for Special Surgery; and Nancy who dropped out of the corporate world to raise her children and has turned a passion for nutrition and wellness into a health coaching practice she runs with her husband.

Just hearing from people who had gotten themselves out of the same boat was encouraging, and I could see spirits rising at the realization those in the room were in good company. That sense of community is what drives a movement for social change. When women began telling each other the truth about their lives back in the ’70s we discovered that we were not a collection of unnatural women but powerful force, energized by outrage, that could have an impact on the way society treated all women. “The truth will set you free,” Gloria Steinem says, “But first it will piss you off.” Injustice is annoying, to say the least. Read More…

Encore.org – second acts for the greater good – is building a movement to tap the skills and experience of those in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world.

Marci Alboher is Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Encore.org and one of the nation’s leading authorities on career issues and workplace trends. Read Marci’s blog.