RESOURCES: ONLINE AND MORE
Resources on Encores, Next Chapters, and Second Acts
On May 16, 2009, LearningLife held an Encore! Fest, where over 150 participants took a look at their next chapters with:
• Marc Freedman, author of Encore! Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life
• Phyllis Moen, author of The Career Mystique: Cracks in the American Dream
• Jim Scheibel, former St. Paul mayor and Corporation for National and Community Service Vice President
• A cast of four inspiring "action figures" from Twin Cities communities.
Want to learn more about these awesome presenters? Here are short bios of each of them.
Now, here are some specially selected resources related to encore work, transitioning to a second or third act, emerging demographic and societal realities, and making a difference locally and globally. (You can also find resources on healthy aging and social entrepreneurship elsewhere on this page.) AUDIO FROM THE LEARNINGLIFE ENCORE FEST Phyllis Moen: Second Chances in the Second Half of Life Marc Freedman: Encore Careers: Inventing Retirement as a New Stage of Work DEMOGRAPHICS Minnesota's Radical Demographic Changes. (Video: view or download.) From a Strategic Leadership Insights program, April 2, 2008. Demographic Profile of American Baby Boomers. Compiled in 2007 by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. Boomers by the Numbers: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know… AGING This study on the role of purpose explores how people prioritize their lives. It is based on the work of best-selling author, executive educator, and life coach Richard Leider. The accompanying workbook and DVD are based on Leider's classic book, Repacking Your Bags. Richard Leider: Facing the Midlife Challenge. (Audio: listen or download.) From LearningLife's "Living a Renewable Life" Fest on May 17, 2008. International Longevity Center WORK AFTER WORK Encore Career Survey: Americans Seek Meaningful Work in the Second Half of Life. June 2008. Tapping Encore Talent: A MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Survey of Nonprofit Employers. October 2008. Staying Ahead of the Curve 2007: The AARP Work and Career Study. September 2008. This report offers an overview of key findings from a survey of 1,500 workers, ages 45 to 74, who were working or looking for work, along with examples of workforce practices implemented by selected employers to address the needs of an aging workforce. What Happened to Your Parachute? The New Face of the Working World. (Audio: listen or download.) Social Forces Shaping Retirement. (Audio: listen or download.) Civic Ventures Encore.org: Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life VOLUNTEERING AND SERVICE The Health Benefits of Volunteering: A Review of Recent Research. April 2007. (Click on the study title in the list of Recent Research Reports and Analysis.) Volunteer Match Hands On Twin Cities Corporation for National and Community Service Experience Corps Medline Plus This massive online library, a joint project of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, features an alphabetical index of 1776 (!) links to health and related topics. Health Talk and You From the U of M's Academic Health Center. You can subscribe to a monthly e-mail newsletter. Taking Charge of Your Health From the U of M's Center for Spirituality and Healing and the Life Science Foundation. Check out My Health Planner, an online tool offering an individual curriculum for better health. Blue Zones Community Based on the book, The Blue Zones. Take the Vitality Compass (developed with the U of M's School of Public Health), to gauge your healthy life expectancy and learn ways to prolong it. Center for Spirituality and Healing Part of the U of M's Academic Health Center, the Center is home to the Purpose Project, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction classes, and exciting special events. Be sure to join the mailing list. Public Health Scene The U of M's School of Public Health offers expert advise on health issues that affect us all. Includes Public Health Moments, brief audio segments in which Dean John Finnegan interviews faculty experts. International Longevity Center Founded by gerontologist Robert N. Butler, the site offers free publications, a healthy aging section featuring links to research and opinion on how to age healthfully, and more. Richard Leider: Facing the Midlife Challenge Catherine Watson: Living a Renewable Life Five Great Ideas (video) Great Conversations (MP3 and Podcast) Headliners (MP3 and Podcast)
RECOMMENDED READING
Encore! recommended reading list (PDF). Includes books that were for sale at the Fest and recommended by Fest presenters, participants, and LearningLife staff.
A Blueprint for 2010: Preparing Minnesota for the Age Wave. Minnesota Department of Human Services. Click on Aging.
This report summarizes discussions held with Minnesotans during 2006 about actions the state needs to take to address the permanent shift in the age of its population.
State demographer Tom Gillaspy discusses profound and rapid workforce changes that are now underway as baby boomers age, the underlying demographic trends driving them, and some of the challenges and opportunities they present.
Fast facts compiled in 2005 by Civic Ventures.
Discovering What Matters: Balancing Money, Medicine, and Meaning. January 2009.
Vital Aging Network (VAN)
Twin Cities based community organization that helps older adults be self-sufficient, live fulfilling and meaningful lives, and contribute to vital communities.
A joint project of Civic Ventures and the MetLife Foundation, this booklet is a mini-career planning workshop for "work after work."
This major 2008 Civic Ventures/MetLife Foundation survey found that millions now work in "encore careers" that combine money, meaning and social impact, and that tens of millions more say they want similar work.
This complement to the Encore Career Survey surveyed 427 nonprofit employers and found that many find encore workers appealing. However, some expressed concerns about entering this uncharted territory.
Author and life coach Richard Leider talks with Richard Bolles, author of What Color is Your Parachute?, about living and working with purpose in the second half of life. From Great Conversations, June 5, 2007.
Sociologist Phyllis Moen talks with author and Civic Ventures founder Marc Freedman about the coming "retirement revolution." From Great Conversations, May 16, 2006.
A nonprofit think tank and program incubator that focuses on creating pathways to encore careers that provide continued income doing work that is personally fulfilling and helps address some of society’s biggest challenges.
Encore.org is a program of Civic Ventures that provides free, comprehensive information that helps individuals transition to jobs in the nonprofit world and the public sector.
More To Give: Tapping the Talents of the Baby Boomer, Silent, and Greatest Generations. September 2008.
In an effort to better understand the civic behaviors and attitudes of Americans and to help ground the research in the stories and perspectives of the Boomer and Silent Generations, AARP commissioned a series of focus groups and a nationally representative survey of Americans ages 44-79.
Over the past two decades, a growing body of research indicates that volunteering provides not just social benefits, but individual health benefits as well. This research has established a strong relationship between volunteering and health: those who volunteer have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer.
VolunteerMatch strengthens communities by making it easier for good people and good causes to connect. This national organization offers a variety of online services to support nonprofit, volunteer, and business leaders who are committed to civic engagement.
This local organization links volunteers with volunteer opportunities, builds partnerships with local agencies and companies, develops meaningful volunteer projects, convenes community leaders to improve the Twin Cities through volunteerism, customizes volunteer experiences to meet group needs, provides training and consulting for volunteer managers and groups, and cultivates community citizenship and civic participation.
Administers Senior Corps, American Corps, VISTA, and other programs. A treasure trove of information about ways to serve.
Founded by Marc Freedman, Experience Corps members tutor and mentor in 23 cities across the country, providing literacy coaching, homework help, consistent role models, and committed, caring attention.Resources on Healthy Aging
Audio and Video from the U of M's College of Continuing Education
Listen to internationally renowned life coach, author, and executive educator Richard Leider as he shows us how to renew our gifts, passions, and values in the second half of life.
Life, it turns out, really IS a journey. Listen to, and laugh with, Catherine Watson, longtime travel write at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as she shares some of the bumps, detours, sharp turns and, ultimately, joyful discoveries along her path.
Given the current state of human and planetary affairs, how can we create a sustainable future? Join educator, architect, and creativity expert Jerry Allan as he helps us imagine a better world and focus our visions to create it.
Listen to audio from this signature interview series, including American Democracy in Dissent with Daniel Ellsberg and Larry Jacobs, What's Making America Fat? The Obesity Epidemic with David Kessler and Allen Levine, and many more.
Listen to audio from this monthly date with the experts, including On the Road in Search of Latino America with Louis Mendoza,The Next Generation of Biofuels with David Tilman, and many more.
Explore LearningLife
LearningLife Recommends
Social Entrepreneurship
BOOKS
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas by David Bornstein. Now published in more than 20 countries, this book has become the bible for social entrepreneurship. It is an In Search of Excellence for social initiatives, intertwining personal stories, anecdotes, and analysis.
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets that Change the World by John Elkington and Pamela Hartigan. Social innovators are inventing the new business models needed to catalyze social change. Their market research, business models, and leadership styles offer vital insights into future opportunities for you or your organization.
Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets by John Weiser, Michele Kahane, Steve Rochlin, and Jessica Landis. Serving the underserved can be a key to increased sales, a qualified workforce, marketable innovations, and more. And as companies benefit, so too do communities, through better products, prices, and services, more meaningful job opportunities, and an increased market for their own goods and services.
ORGANIZATIONS
Ashoka: Innovators for the Public
The global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems.
Ashoka's open source community where people working for change can share stories, learn from each other, find out about opportunities, and the latest news.
Civic Ventures
The pioneering organization helping people in the second half of life create social impact while reaping personal reward.
Beginning with a belief that dedicated, talented leadership is the essence of social change, venture capitalist Bill Draper III's foundation provides funding and business mentoring to social entrepreneurs as they begin their nonprofit organizations.
Helps visionary social entrepreneurs and their organizations bring about widespread and transformative impact on critical social problems. They also offer opportunities for individuals to invest in promising social ventures.
Omidyar Network
A philanthropic investment firm that creates opportunities for people to improve their lives by investing in market-based efforts that catalyze economic, social, and political change. Founded by e-Bay founder Pierre Omidyar.
The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship
A nonprofit, independent, politically neutral organization created to advance social entrepreneurship and foster social entrepreneurs as an important catalyst for societal innovation and progress.
Advances systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting, and celebrating social entrepreneurs. Founded by Jeff Skoll, the first president of e-Bay.
