Our Point of View
We believe that older adults are one of society’s most undervalued resources. We believe in the need for purpose and connection at every stage of life. We believe society needs new roles for older people to do what they do best — mentor and guide the next generation. And we believe that society works better when the generations to come together in ways that benefit old and young alike.
We need to remove barriers — ageism, lack of opportunity, financial insecurity — that stand in the way of making the encore vision of purpose in later life a reality. Our team and network of thought leaders are working to make sure these issues are part of the public conversation. Here’s a taste of what we’ve been talking and writing about.
2020 Election: The Candidates’ National Service Plans
One presidential hopeful has a service proposal to unite generations I’ve been studying the candidates running for president, searching for ideas they have to bring us together as a nation. As a former board member of the federal Corporation for National and...
To Help More Young People, These Nonprofits Learned to Tap the Talent of Older Ones
How can nonprofits tap a new and growing source of talent -- people over 50 -- to improve the lives of the children and youth they serve? To help answer the question, nine youth-serving nonprofits -- all members of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities --...
Giving
Five p.m. on a Tuesday, mid-winter. I’m sitting in the basement of St. Cyril’s Macedonian Orthodox Church in Regent Park in downtown Toronto. Teenagers drift in – by turns chatty, solemn, effusive, shy. Quickly they shed their coats to colonize the bare beat-up tables...
Marc Freedman: Building Bridges Across Generations
The CEO of Encore.org explains why it's important to society for older citizens to mix with younger people as the age gap widens. Want to live forever? Marc Freedman can help. No, he’s not one of the Silicon Valley “immortalists” seeking to radically prolong human...
Host a Clothing Swap: Gen2Gen Style
Great 'new' clothing and accessories aren't the only treasures to be discovered When my mother started her now-famous clothing swap about 11 years ago, we weren’t thinking, “Let’s bring the generations together.” We were thinking, “Let’s figure out how to indulge our...
She Was Old Enough to be Their Mother: Lessons on the Road to a Multigenerational Workforce
When Mary Gunn took over as the new executive director of Generations Incorporated -- a Boston-area nonprofit working to strengthen the literacy skills of young children by engaging people over the age of 50 as volunteer literacy tutors -- her first...
We’ve Benefited From Having a Public Voice and So Can You
We are a group of twenty from across the country, our common goal to refine, focus, and elevate our voices on the implications of an aging society—essentially, to change our aging narrative from one of decline to one of inspiration and growth. We are the...
At a Georgia Day Care Center, Older Neighbors Find Purpose, Connection
Little Steps Community Daycare in rural Georgia has transformed the lives of children, parents, and senior volunteers. About two years ago Lindsey McCamy, leader of a nonprofit in rural Georgia that helps homeless and low-income families, sat in a meeting with the...
Older Adults Offer These 5 Life Lessons to New Grads
For most of us, graduation is a time of celebration and uncertainty. New grads may be thinking: What am I going to do with my life? Will any of this work out? Can I adult? Some may wish they could ask their future selves for advice, but we offered them...
The Second Mountain and the Second Half of Life
I’m writing to let you know about a profoundly important new book from one of the most influential columnists of our time. The Second Mountain, written by New York Times and PBS NewsHour commentator David Brooks, tells a compelling and ultimately hopeful story about...
What’s a Nursing Home Combined With a Childcare Center? A Hopeful Model for the Future of Aging
Imagine a place for the elderly that’s also filled with the sounds of kids playing. Marc Freedman goes to Singapore to investigate a new model for intergenerational living. Sister Geraldine Tan, an energetic woman in her 60s, speaks rapidly and is given to...
How an Alliance Between Millennials and Religious Sisters Has Changed Outlooks
The number of Roman Catholic women religious – colloquially known as nuns – in the United States fell about 75 percent between 1965 and 2016, according to Catholic News Service. But many of the approximately 49,000 women leading this life today believe that new...