Suzanne Braun Levine » Encore Careers

THE PURPOSE PRIZEMEET THE 2011 WINNERS!

glenlevy — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 20:12:21 +0000

By Suzanne Braun Levine,
Civic Ventures Board Member

I joined the Board of Civic Ventures in 2009, and one of the most inspiring elements of their mission is the discovery and celebration of outstanding social entrepreneurs in the Encore stage of life. The winners of the Purpose Prize have been selected from hundreds of nominees, and having had the honor of being one of the judges, I can tell you that the choices were tough to make; there were many resourceful and courageous candidates for this year’s prizes.

The Purpose Prize is the nation’s only large-scale investment in people over 60 who are combining their passion and experience for social good. Sherry Lansing, CEO, The Lansing Foundation and Chair, Purpose Prize panel of judges has said, that: “The Purpose Prize isn’t a lifetime achievement award. It’s an investment in what these encore innovators – all over 60 – will do next.”

Meet the 2011 Winners of the Purpose Prize – five people who will receive $100,000 each – for improving their communities and the world. Watch their videos here…

Jenny Bowen

Winner of the Purpose Prize for Intergenerational Innovation, sponsored by AARP – Bowen is uplifting the lives of thousands of Chinese orphans

Randal Charlton

Charlton promotes entrepreneurship in Detroit as a means to create jobs and revitalize the struggling city.

Nancy Sanford Hughes

Hughes helps save people in the developing world from catastrophic injury, even death, by replacing the traditional open cooking fire with an efficient stove.

Wajiru Kamau

Kamau helps African immigrants – especially teenagers – adjust to a vastly different life in the United States.

Edward Mazria

Mazria is driving the building sector toward dramatically reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

To learn more about Encore Careers, visit: www.encore.org.

“The New Male Mystique” and theOngoing Work-Family Conflict

glenlevy — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:44:29 +0000

By Suzanne Braun Levine

Back in 2000 my first book Father Courage: What Happens When Men Put Family First came out. In it I talked about men who desperately wanted to be more involved with their families and do more of their share at home but were constrained by the workplace culture and the prevailing image of how a Real Man prioritized his work and family. One told me that he was so afraid of getting caught leaving his office at 6:00 p.m. and being thought not committed to his work that he parked in a distant corner of the parking lot. Another told me that when he went to the playground with his baby daughter on a weekday, people assumed one of two things – that he was unemployed (a failure) or a sexual predator.

Since then a lot has changed. My neighborhood is full of fathers pushing strollers or wearing Snugglies or wiping a messy chin at all hours of the day and night. But a new study – by the prestigious and reliable Families and Work Institute – reports that they are paying a price. Men trying to balance work and family have become victims of what they call “The New Male Mystique.” They are stressed out trying to fill a new model of masculinity that is just as oppressive as the Master of the Universe model was twenty years ago – a combination of loving dad, conscientious (and still ambitious) employee, and supportive and responsive husband.

Is this bizarre turn of events just another example of the “be careful what you wish for” retribution? I don’t think so. For one thing, those men are still doing less of the household tasks and childcare than their wives, so in that department, we are still wishing. But I think the stress that now crushes men as well as women who are trying to maintain family life and a serious work life at the same time is due less to impossible role expectations than to the workplace itself.

A lot has changed in our culture, but the shape of our work life has barely shifted off the classic 9-to-5 time frame and the drive-to-the-top career trajectory. Technology has made it possible to work from home and to work all night instead of all day, but flextime, job-sharing, family leave and childcare policies have barely made a chink in the structure. The message remains: when it comes to balancing family and work, there is not enough time to go around – deal with it. We are all on our own.

Parents are not the only sector of the population whose efforts at achieving a meaningful life that combines – in Freud’s words – “love and work” are being stymied by the hidebound workplace; the new generation of Second Adulthood men and women are caught in the same bind. Another recent report – this one from Louis Harris for SunAmerica and Age Wave founder and renowned gerontologist Kenneth Dychtwald – describes another group afflicted by the work-family bind. Entitled “The SunAmerica Retirement Re-Set Study,” it finds that people over fifty intend to work way past the traditional retirement age. Some because they find the work itself rewarding, others because their finances require it, and nearly half (!) of them because they expect to have to help support “aging relatives, adult children, grandchildren, and siblings.” Yes, adult children, including those for whom – I’ll wager – Having It All hasn’t worked out.

Like the young parents, they too would welcome options that would enable them to participate in the working world on more nurturing terms. “Most Americans want increased flexibility in retirement with the opportunity between periods of work and leisure,” says Dychtwald. Of those, a significant group are struggling to find an enriched kind of work for the next chapter, a job that enables them to earn a living and also give back to society, in what Civic Ventures, the think-tank that is devoted to supporting and encouraging this choice, has identified as an Encore Career, one that combines “purpose, passion, and a paycheck.” (Check out their website Encore.org for more on this new movement). Perhaps one byproduct of their efforts to open new categories of work that contribute to society will be an opening up of the workplace itself.

Right now the parallels between these first and Second Adulthood generations are cited as examples of conflicting interests. Older workers, the argument goes, are “sucking the oxygen out of the atmosphere.” Any job we find is one that a younger person will be denied; any social support we get for our stage of life is one they won’t get for theirs – and will have to pay for later. Seeing the situation as a food fight over the same pieces of pie makes it impossible to join forces to enlarge and enrich the pie. As I see it, support for family responsibilities and the opportunity for productive work are not mutually exclusive spheres but a mutually inclusive intergenerational cause; we all – parents and grandparents – can become a force for social change that will bring about a more humane balance love and work.

RESOURCES:

Families and Work Institute (FWI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that studies the changing workforce, the changing workplace, the changing family and the changing community.

Ellen Galinsky, President and Co-Founder, co-directs the National Study of the Changing Workforce, the most comprehensive nationally representative study of the U.S. workforce and is the author of highly acclaimed Mind in the Making.
www.familiesandwork.org

Age Wave, founded by Kenneth Dychtwald, Ph.D., is the world’s leader in understanding the effects of an aging population on the marketplace, the workplace, and our lives.
www.agewave.com

SunAmerica Retirement Re-Set a nationwide survey, developed in collaboration with Age Wave and conducted by Harris Interactive, of Americans age 55 and older that takes an in-depth look at the shift in attitudes and actions toward retirement.
retirementreset.com

Civic Ventures is a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Civic Ventures’ Encore Careers campaign aims to engage millions of people in encore careers – combining personal meaning, continued income and social impact – to produce a windfall of talent to solve society’s greatest problems.

Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, has been recognized by Fast Company magazine three years in a row as one of the nation’s leading social entrepreneurs. His new book The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife was hailed by The New York Times as “an imaginative work with the potential to affect our individual lives and our collective future.”

Encore Careers combine purpose, passion and a paycheck.
www.encore.org

NY Public Library Hosts Encore Careers Panel June 29 with Purpose Prize Winners & Suzanne Braun Levine

glenlevy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:55:17 +0000

By Stefanie Weiss,
VP Communications at
Civic Ventures

Some of the most inspiring Encore stories come from Civic Ventures Purpose Prize winners and fellows, people in their 60s who are tackling society’s toughest problems.

The panel discussion – “In Search of Purpose, Passion and a Paycheck: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life” – is sponsored by Civic Ventures, which runs The Purpose Prize, and the New York Chapter of Coming of Age, a program that helps people 50-plus explore their futures while strengthening communities.

Suzanne Braun Levine, author of Inventing the Rest of Our Lives: Women in Second Adulthood and Fifty Is the New Fifty: 10 Life Lessons for Women in Second Adulthood, and the first editor of Ms. magazine – will moderate the discussion.

If you’re in New York on June 29, join us at the New York Public Library for some inspiration from four Purpose Prize honorees, who will talk about how they transitioned into Encore Careers (details below).

The Panelists:

Carole Artigiani, founder, Global Kids – A former educator, Artigiani now prepares urban youths to become global citizens.
Mark Goldsmith, founder, Getting Out and Staying Out – A former marketing executive, Goldsmith now helps young men plan for life after prison.

Emira Habiby Browne, founder, Center for the Integration and Advancement of New Americans – A Palestinian immigrant and social services professional, Browne provides support services to new immigrants.

Daniel Luhata Shungu, founder, United Front Against River Blindness – A former professional at a pharmaceutical company, Shungu now works to wipe out a disease that causes blindness and severe socioeconomic problems in the Republic of Congo.

The Encore Careers Campaign and The Purpose Prize are initiatives of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Each of the panelists has been honored by The Purpose Prize, which provides awards of $100,000 to people, age 60 and over, who are creating new ways to solve tough social problems. Find out more at
www.encore.org/prize

Special thanks to The S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation for underwriting this event, and to Coming of Age NYC, an initiative created to help people 50+ explore their futures, promote a 50+ connection and contribution, and build stronger nonprofits and communities.
comingofage.org

The FREE Event will take place:

Date: Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Time: 4:00 – 6:30 p.m.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building – South Court Auditorium
Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
New York, NY 10018-2788
For more information: 212-340-0951

Stefanie Weiss is Vice President for Communications at Civic Ventures and Director of Communications for Experience Corps. For several years, she wrote a column called “Midlife” for The Washington Post Health section. She worked for 16 years at the National Education Association (NEA), and co-authored the book, Protecting the Freedom to Learn, published by People for the American Way. Visit her blog at www.encore.org

“SHIFT HAPPENS” – It’s My New Motto.Maybe it’s Your Motto, Too?

glenlevy — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:24:18 +0000

By Ruth A. Wooden,
Chair, Civic Ventures

Shift Happens. It’s probably happening to you right now

Buy Now Amazon

My big shift started when I retired last year, and it’s still going. I’m not sure where I’m headed, but it’s been a pleasure to hit the pause button while I ponder. Lately, certain life moments have hooked my attention, turning points that mark shifts not only in the world around me but in the way I view it.

In l968 I graduated from college on the day Bobby Kennedy was killed. It stunned everyone. Our commencement march turned into a funeral procession, complete with bitter rainstorm to mark our passage into the real world.

Three years later I was living in St. Louis, where I joined a bridge club that never played bridge. We’d deal the cards in all earnestness, but then they’d sit in a little puddle in front of us while we did what we hadn’t realized we’d meant to do: build the women’s movement.

1983 brought me my one and only child, which fundamentally shifted by whole orientation. And just five years later, I got my first CEO job and I was (if possible) even more terrified. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to act as if I knew exactly what I was doing.

Since I left my midlife career and entered this entirely new stage of life–what my friend and colleague Marc Freedman calls “the encore years”– I’ve had many conversations that take me back to the early days of the women’s movement. At the time we felt marginalized, underutilized and alone. It’s the same now for many of us who have finished our midlife careers but don’t exactly know what’s next. We have to get together and talk about it, no?

I’ve enjoyed being in a state of rest and renewal as I think about what’s next for me.

Whether it ends up being two weeks, two months, or two years, I know I’ll find my next step — and when I do, I’ll be ready for it. What’s important is that we can be there to support each other through this transition to an entirely new stage of life.

When “Shift Happens” to so many of us at the same time, we can find ways to talk about it, to prepare for it, and, most of all, work together to create a brighter future for those who come after us.

Shift Happens — it’s my new motto. Maybe it’s your motto, too?

Are you part of this big demographic and cultural shift? Are you no longer young but decades from being old?

Send the “Shift Happens” e-card and start the conversation:
http://action.encore.org/send-an-e-card

For more information, visit:
www.civicventures.org
www.encore.org/thebigshift

COURTNEY MARTIN: A New Generation of Activists

glenlevy — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:21:12 +0000

Courtney Martin: A New Generation of Activists

By Suzanne Braun Levine,

Encore.org

Over coffee on a winter afternoon, I spoke with Courtney Martin for Encore.org about how to go about making the world a better place.

Courtney Martin is the author of “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists.” She speaks to her generation in her writings and her blogs on Feministing.com (“young feminists blogging, organizing, kicking ass”). And she speaks about her generation to older activists who are trying to figure out where all the political flowers have gone.

In her book, Martin profiles eight young people who exemplify the kind of activism that is a “bridge over the chasm between what our parents and teachers told us about good deeds, about success and what the real world needs every day.”

That chasm is very personal; her parents were, as she puts it, “radicals” when they were in their early 30s, as she is now, but her father had to make the practical decision to “get a secure job.” Now he is retired and looking for an encore.

Q. You see a difference between your parents’ activism and that of your generation. Can you describe it?

A. I think the big distinction I make is about a “save the world” mentality. There was a lot of those three words when I was growing up, and both of my parents – in a well-intentioned way – thought: You’re Americans, you’re privileged, go save the world.

To me those three words deny the complexity of what it would mean to make change in this day and age. The world is more globalized, it’s more corporatized, it’s more bureaucratic. You can take any daily decision – like “I want to buy all my clothing from companies that don’t exploit people” – and if you follow that chain you find out, “Well, now I’m not exploiting people, but I’m using some sort of toxic chemical that’s going to someday poison my baby.”

It’s so overwhelming to try to lead a very basic meaningful life, and it’s very difficult to make a really solid decision about what is actually going to help, what is worth your energy, what is going to make a difference.

Read more of our conversation about her generation of activists, mentoring, social activism and her father at encore.org.

www.encore.org

www.feministing.org

www.courtneyemartin.com

“Say Something. Do Something.” And Other Lessons I Re-Learned Last Week!

glenlevy — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:18:40 +0000

By Suzanne Braun Levine

This is past weekend I experienced a powerful antidote to the gloom and doom that seem to have settled over current events: the company of inspiring and determined social entrepreneurs, who had gathered in Philadelphia (appropriately, given the reminders everywhere of the idealism and perseverance that it took to invent our Constitution) to share information and give fellow pioneers moral support.

Humans are social creatures…

First, was the National Village Gathering (“Your Voice. Your Vision. Your Village.”) where I spoke about the similarities between the movement to combat ageism and capture the talents and spirit of people over fifty, which has engaged my energies these days, and the women’s movement, which changed my life back then. Village to Village Network is a support and information exchange for groups who are developing innovative ways to enable people to “age in place” by coordinating community services and one another’s time and expertise in the their neighborhood.

We Want and Need to be of use to each other…

I loved the grassroots nature of this people-helping-people effort. Each “village” takes its shape from the needs and interests of the community; one focuses on developing a clearing house of vetted services that all members can call upon (sometimes at a discount). Another coordinates an exchange of capabilities and expertise – creating a reading group or a dispatch service of volunteer drivers who take their neighbors to and from important appointments. Still another is built around a local health care facility that offers integrated (including preventative) care. The driving vision behind all of these models is that humans are social creatures; we want and need to be of use to each other.

See Something. Do Something…

Two days later I attended the Civic Ventures Summit for this year’s Purpose Prize Winners. Civic Ventures is an organization devoted to changing the perception of people over fifty and helping those of us in that group to engage in worthy work. I am proud to be on the Board.

If you ever want to feel really good about what a single person can do to change the world, go to their website and read about the five years’ worth of winners. I got to meet several of the current and past winners at the Summit. The message from every one was an activist version of the Homeland Security admonition in the New York Subway: “If you see something, say something.” And then Do something.

It’s About Giving Back…

Inez Killingsworth looked around her Cleveland neighborhood and saw one house after another being boarded up in foreclosure. Her response, as she told us when she accepted her award, was simple: “It just isn’t right,” she said to herself and then to anyone who would listen and then to banks and lenders, some of whom she bullied to take a bus tour of the deserted neighborhoods their practices had created. In one year alone 8,000 Ohio families got better mortgage rates and were able to stay in their homes.

At breakfast the next day, I sat with David Campbell, founder of All Hands Volunteers and a past winner, who galvanized the whole table with his enthusiastic account of the wide-ranging relief efforts his group has organized. They began in New Orleans; now they are in Haiti.

“Everyone sleeps in a dorm; everyone does whatever work they are suited for; everyone stays as long as they can,” he told us. “No one gets paid – just room and board.” His team organizes the work assignments, coordinates the skills and needs, and trains the volunteers. Listening to him, I was humbled by his joyful optimism about the work and the human spirit and his stick-to-it-iveness in the face of unrelenting bad news.

How, I had to ask myself, could I let myself be discouraged by the nightly news? Spending time with people like David Campbell and Inez Killingsworth reminds me that social justice movements are not only about fighting back, but also about giving back.

To learn more about the people and organizations that are doing something to give back, please visit:

Village to Village Network

http://vtvnetwork.clubexpress.com/

Civic Ventures/Encore.org – 2010 Purpose Prize Winners

http://www.encore.org/prize

Inez Killingsworth – Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People – Video

http://bit.ly/cDRqVO

All Hands Volunteers – Helping Communities in Need by Empowering Volunteers

http://hands.org/

WE’RE LIVING LONGER AND ASKING WHAT’S NEXT? THAT’S WHERE THE ENCORE CAREER PROGRAM COMES IN!

glenlevy — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 22:26:34 +0000

Want to Combine Purpose, Passion and a Paycheck?

The Two-Week Program Begins ONLINE, October 19^th

LIVE Sessions: Oct. 22, 29, 2010, 12:00-1:15.PM EST

On October 22^nd, I will be part of a Live Interactive Webcast Panel and groundbreaking Encore Careers Program on The New York Times Knowledge Network (October 19-November 2, 2010).

The two-week course, designed by social entrepreneur and author Marc Freedman and Civic Ventures, is an exciting opportunity for those of us who want to combine purpose, passion and a paycheck in second adulthood.

Many women tell me the chapter of FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY they re-visit again and again is “Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes.” That chapter is about the big and small steps we can generate to bring new elements into the mix of our lives.

For many of us change may include leaving a job and picturing a new job. Work is often at the center of the question we ask ourselves in second adulthood: What’s Next?

The Encore Careers Program (click here for more information and to register) is an innovative approach to crafting a new career – in health care, education, nonprofits, the environment, government or your entrepreneurial idea.

Marci Alboher, author of “One Person/Multiple Careers,” VP of Civic Ventures, and former NYT Shifting Careers columnist and blogger and I will be on a special 30-minute edition of “Feisty Side of Fifty Radio,” hosted by Eileen Williams on October 7^th (10:00 a.m.) to preview the topics that will be part of the two-week course.

Join us for a lively conversation. Inspire, support and help you jump start your Encore Career.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.nytimesknownow.com/index.php/civic-ventures-encore-careers-program//

www.encore.org

www.civicventures.org

www.feistysideoffifty.com

Retirement Ambivalence: Who’s Afraid of Getting Off the Career Track?

glenlevy — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:18:55 +0000

By Ruth Wooden

President, Public Agenda & Chair of the Board, Civic Ventures

There’s a new chapter required in The Etiquette Handbook: “What to say to someone who is retiring.”

I can’t get over some of the things people have said to me after a routine announcement that I plan to retire as President of a NYC-based nonprofit later this year. By the time I retire, I will be 64 and will have served more than seven years in this position after a working career of more than 40 years, interrupted only for 10 weeks of maternity leave in 1983. Is this really such a big surprise?

Apparently it is. The most benign response from professional colleagues was “Wow, that’s big news!” The most inappropriate was “Are you sick?” The most flattering was “You don’t look old enough to retire.” There were plenty of people who did say “Congratulations,” but by far the most frequent response was “What are you going to do next?”

After a few weeks, an amusing pattern became evident. Almost to a person, women were the ones who said “Congratulations. You’ve earned it.” Some men also said some variation of that sentiment, but more often than not, the men seemed surprised and anxious to know “what’s next?” And the closer people were to “normal” retirement age, the more likely they were to fit into this gender pattern. Clearly there was a lot of projection going on. As a friend said, “The women are hoping for free time and enough money to avoid bag lady status while the men are panicked at the thought of not having a business card.”

We’re going to see a lot more of this pattern. I am a “canary in the mine”, so to speak, having been born in 1946, the first year of the baby boom. I’ve noticed throughout my life that I could usually count on having a lot of likeminded people to talk to when I was mulling over major life changes. That instinct for spotting trends served me well in my earlier advertising career –I could usually tell when there would soon be much more interest in products that I wanted or needed, e.g. clothes for a thickening waistline. Already there is a flood of articles and books telling us how to make the most of our retirement – from how to make your money last to how to find more meaning in your life. But most of us are inventing this new life stage on the fly and in secret.

And I think it’s fair to say that not retiring has become rather chic, especially in some NYC and other high-powered circles. It’s a sign that you are just too engaged and passionate to ever give up your important, productive work. One acquaintance asked me the other day if I was really using the “R word?” And since most people avoid talking about money, the retirement discussion is not about whether to retire, but what one will be doing in retirement, often using that oxymoron “working retirement.” It’s not that I don’t expect to work for some time during the next decade. I’ve got enough money saved to survive, but I will live more comfortably with a modest consulting income to supplement those savings. I’m not rich, but I do feel rich in the things that matter most to me—health, family, friends, passions and interests. And I have thoughts about what kind of work I might do, but honestly, I don’t know if these ideas will ever come to pass.

It would be disingenuous to say I am not anxious about the “what’s next?” question. I get anxious just being asked the question without having a ready answer. I have always had a good response to that question, or at least I pretended to know and gave a socially acceptable answer. A friend once told me that I had great timing, e.g. knowing when to buy and sell real estate, when to take a new job and when to move on. But now my secret fear is that I will let too much “game time” elapse and I will be” out of sight, out of mind” when I am ready to pick up the briefcase again. Last week I told a very considerate man that as my next thing I was thinking about buying a new bathing suit. I figured that would stop his questioning (it did), but my snarky response revealed the depths of my own anxiety, especially my worry about being too leisurely as I try to figure this all out.

The ironic thing for me is that I have already spent a lot of time researching the retirement question. I’ve been a board member of Civic Ventures for nearly 10 years and we have interviewed any number of retirees and near retirees, looking at what it would take to encourage the country’s upcoming baby boomer retirees to consider starting “encore careers” to take on the social problems that so many of us have the experience, skills and interest to address. I’ve heard this yearning over and over and feel it myself, but I am not yet sure exactly what it is I want to do in my encore. I know enough to know I’m not moving to Florida to play bridge or golf, and I doubt I’ll be joining the Peace Corps , though that was the encore career my own mother chose, going to Yemen of all places at age 70.

I guess what I want more than anything is to feel free to live for some decent amount of time in what my fellow Civic Ventures board member, Suzanne Braun Levine, refers to as the ”fertile void,” which she says could last a year or more. It’s a “prolonged state of confusion… feeling the energy and spirit of adventure stirring, without knowing what type of action to take.” I need to clear out the years of noise in my head and listen to my inner voice so I can truly know what I want to do next. Correction: I think what I really want from my time in the fertile void is to figure out what I don’t want to do and to finally give up on all those socially acceptable things I think I should want to do.

So for now when I get asked the question “what will you do next?” I plan to say with as little anxiety as possible, “Ask me next year.”

Ruth A. Wooden became president of Public Agenda, an innovative public opinion research and public engagement organization, in 2003. The organization, has been providing unbiased and unparalleled research that bridges the gap between American leaders and what the public really things about issues ranging from education to foreign policy to immigration to religion and civility in American life. She serves as chair of the board of Civic Ventures, which works to define the second half of adult life as a time of individual and social renewal.

“Retirement Ambivalence: Who’s Afraid of Getting Off the Career Track?” is also featured on More magazine’s site: www.more.com

For additional information, visit:

www.publicagenda.org

www.civicventures.org

www.encore.org

“READY FOR LIFE’S ENCORE PERFORMANCES” Baby Boomers in Second Careers

glenlevy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 00:49:05 +0000

Civic Ventures and Encore.org in the News – Again!

Photo Credit: Angela Jimenez for The New York Times

Ever since the June, 2009 White House hosted an event salute to social innovators who are in their Encore Careers, Civic Ventures www.civicventures.org and Encore.org have been in the news.

On March 3, 2010 The New York Times (by Elizabeth Pope) reported on “Matching Life Experience With New Careers:”

“HEALTH navigator? Conflict coach? Pollution mitigation outreach worker? These emerging jobs aren’t household terms yet, but they are a natural fit for older people looking for new career opportunities, said Phyllis Segal, vice president at Civic Ventures, a nonprofit research group based in San Francisco.
“Many of today’s new encore careers build on multiple work and life experiences, so they are a good match for older adults who’ve spent decades in the workplace,” Ms. Segal said.”

[To read more, click here]

And most recently, The New York Times praised the work of Marc Freedman, who started Encore Careers and initiated the pilot program for baby boomers to transition into second careers (March 19, 2010, by Sarah Kershaw): “Ready for Life’s Encore Performances”:

“IN the back room of a neighborhood restaurant here (Palo Alto, CA) a small group of men and women in their 50s gathered recently to mark a milestone. “I feel like when historians look back and think about this salmon lunch at MacArthur Park, they’ll see this was a real turning point,” said Marc Freedman, who started a pilot program for baby boomers to transition into second careers.

These 10 executives had all left their high-paying jobs in the private sector and joined the pilot program, and this was their formal graduation. They had taken a step familiar to some high school or college students: take a year off to regroup, rethink and figure out what they want to be when they grow up.”

[To read more, click here]

As Marc Freedman has said, “In tough economic times, we need more creative solutions to long-standing social problems. It’s reassuring to note that as America ages, we have creativity in greater abundance. Purpose Prize winners show that experience and innovation can go hand in hand, that inventiveness is not the sole province of the young.”
Please join me in saluting these wonderful organizations.
For more information, please visit:

www.encore.org

www.civicventures.org

‘A Revolutionary Gathering’ of Social Entrepreneurs – The Purpose Prize Summit

glenlevy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:21:42 +0000

Ann Higdon

MEET ANN HIGDON
2009 PURPOSE PRIZE WINNER
“The Purpose Prize gathering is revolutionary,” said Ellen Goodman the newspaper columnist and herself, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize. “I am looking at you as my mentors,” she told the audience in her keynote address at the recent Purpose Prize Summit.

I have to agree. It was a room filled with inspiring people and stories.

I met Ann Higdon, winner of a 2009 Purpose Prize ($50,000.) and was impressed by her strength, warmth, and humor. Ann is the fist to admit that in high school she had “a big mouth and a bad attitude.” She will also tell you that one teacher made a difference. She was a D student, but the teacher saw something more and wrote across the top of an essay — “You are profound and eloquent.”

It changed everything, and at age 69, Ann was honored for creating three charter schools, and a program for high school dropouts that has evolved into a successful organization (ISUS) that teaches nursing, construction, computer operations, and manufacturing skills in Dayton, Ohio.

Union and civic leaders call her a ‘magician, but her biggest fans are ISUS graduates. “Progress means staying nimble,” says Higdon. “We’re agile… We change.”

Learn more Ann Higdon and ISUS (Improved Solutions for Urban Systems)
http://bit.ly/7SfH0p

Want an Encore Career?
www.encore.org