Idealist, well-known by young people as a source of social change job listings and other resources, has introduced valuable new services targeted at career-switchers and other experienced adults.

The site’s new Mid-Career Transitions Resource Center offers resources for people beginning to consider a career change, women in transition, military personnel and “encore careerists,” with links to events, graduate school programs and forums where members comments on the ups and downs of their job searches. There are even local support groups for mid-career transitions, such as one in Portland, Ore., that has 16 members.

Execution, execution, execution.

Those are the keys to making the most of the encore opportunity, says George Weathersby, chief executive of Genesys Solutions LLC, a consulting firm that helps organizations deliver on their strategic goals through a relentless focus on execution.

To mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the nonprofit Global Kids, has launched Hurricane Katrina: Tempest in Crescent City to showcase the disaster’s heroes and reinforce emergency preparedness.

Just a few years ago, the virtual reality technology used in the game and Web site would have been alien to Carole Artigiani, 67, executive director of Global Kids and a Purpose Prize fellow.

“In real estate, I just helped rich guys get richer. Now, I help people get a life,” said Larry Sykes, one of several individuals featured in “Baby boomers find meaning in ‘encore careers’ at nonprofit groups” in today’s Dallas Morning News.

Writer Bob Moos reports that approximately 1.1 million boomers have left corporate jobs to work in the nonprofit world and that many more will follow. “We’re seeing the beginnings of a large workforce for social change,” Phyllis Segal, vice president of Civic Ventures, which publishes Encore.org, told Moos,

How might we … do something we really love?

Encore.org members Howard and Marika Stone have a provocative post on their 2Young2Retire blog, describing the power of asking questions that begin, “How might I (or we)...” And they suggest it might be a useful exercise for people contemplating the next stage in their life journey.

“These three little words suggest that there is always an answer even if it is not immediately apparent,” the Stones write. “It’s a radical, mind-opening approach that costs nothing and can lead to big breakthroughs.”

Austin Polytechnical Academy in Chicago will welcome 258 students this fall in its high-tech manufacturing training program — a triumph at what was one of the city’s most violence-scarred schools.

The academy is also a triumph for Dan Swinney, a former machinist who helped create the new school within the public school system in 2007. The academy is intended to deliver a “two-fer”: help for beleaguered manufacturing firms and an economic jolt to struggling communities.

Rusine Mitchell Sinclair left a 25-year career at IBM last year “to bring my experiences as an IBM executive to thousands of girls across North Carolina.”

Now, IBM is helping other executives and managers follow Sinclair to the nonprofit sector. The Financial Times calls IBM’s program a “Retirement Plan with a Difference.”

“I want an encore career, but how do I find one?” That’s a question asked by many members of Encore.org.

Kerry Hannon talked with Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures and other experts in midlife career planning for “Six Tips on Planning a Second Career” in the latest issue of U.S. News and World Report.

Freedman, author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life, said few people start a second career purely for the money. “They’re searching for work that is fulfilling and gets them out of bed in the morning,” he told Hannon.

At age 67, traveling, reading and tennis aren’t enough for Simon Lazarus. “I like to go to the theater and do other things, but I do have one serious focus. I feel that’s better than puttering around the house,” he says.

For a good portion of each week, he works as a public policy counsel for the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC) in Washington, D.C., on legal and public issues of importance to older Americans. He is motivated by a desire to counteract what he says are “the evident efforts of somewhat conservative justices to find back-door ways of undermining progressive federal laws” that protect the rights of older citizens.

Finding employers that value older workers can be a challenge. But today AARP introduced a job search engine powered by RetirementJobs.com that lists openings posted by “age friendly certified employers.”

The portal at www.aarp.org/jobs locates part-time, full-time and flex-time positions by keyword and location. Searches can be targeted within a radius of up to 50 miles. To be certified as age friendly, employers must maintain policies, practices and programs consistent with employing people age 50 and older based solely on their proficiency, qualifications and contribution.