While the goal for
many of us is to age gracefully in our own homes, there is far more to staying
in your home than physically adapting the home itself. We know the importance of socialization to remaining emotionally healthy as we age. We know that continuing to
challenge ourselves mentally helps to forestall senility and other forms of
mental illness. And we all want to remain independent, vibrant,
relevant individuals for as long as we can. I recently read an article entitled, Elders
a (Labor) Force for Social Change, written by Marc Freedman in which
he explores meaningful ways to turn retirees into what he calls “a new workforce
for social change.“ I think it’s quite
appropriate to the topic of successfully aging in place.
Elders a (Labor) Force
for Social Change By Marc Freedman We’re a nation that will soon have more older
people than young ones, and much of the popular media portrays this as a
disaster story that goes something like this: Tens of millions of people, the
single biggest group in society and a mighty political force, are about to
dominate the scene. Overnight at age 60, they will become the elderly, pass out
of the “working-age population,” become incompetent and incontinent, bankrupt
the health care system, and vote for hefty increases in public spending on
their retirement at the expense of everyone else. We’ve stretched the average life span from 47
years in 1900 to nearly 80 today. But our imagination about the shape of those
longer lives has lagged behind. Until not long ago, the 50s and 60s meant
retirement, grandparenthood, senior discounts, and early-bird specials. Today
there is a growing group of what I call “neither-nors.” Neither young nor old,
neither ready to be retired nor able to afford it. With big thinking, there is a chance to tap the
talents and experience of the “baby boom” generation to solve longstanding
social problems, from health care to homelessness, education to the
environment. There is a chance to turn an older population into a new workforce
for social change. Some people, like Gary Maxworthy, are leading the
way. As an idealistic young man, Maxworthy wanted to heed JFK’s call to
service, but he already had a family to support. Instead of joining the Peace
Corps, he launched a career in the food-distribution business, where he worked
for more than 30 years. As Maxworthy approached 60, his wife’s passing
sent him into a period of soul-searching. He thought a lot about his old Peace
Corps dream and the prospect of returning to it. In the end, he chose a more
manageable domestic option, VISTA, part of the AmeriCorps national service
program. VISTA placed Maxworthy at the San Francisco Food
Bank, where he discovered that—like food banks throughout the state of
California—it was primarily giving out canned and processed food. It was all
they could reliably deliver without food spoiling. Maxworthy knew that California farmers were
discarding tons of blemished but wholesome fruits and vegetables that were not
up to supermarket standards. He launched Farm to Family, a program that in 2010
distributed more than 100 million pounds of fresh food to needy families in
California. Without question Maxworthy would have done a lot
of good as a 22-year-old Peace Corps volunteer. But would he have been able to
do something comparable to developing a system to distribute 100 million pounds
of food to hungry people every year? Never before have so many people, like Maxworthy,
had so much life experience and the time and the capacity to do something
significant with it. That’s the gift of longevity, the great potential payoff
from all the progress we’ve made in extending lives. But we won’t collect this experience dividend if
we don’t move to recognize a new stage of life and create the kind of support
people need to transition from the end of midlife to the beginning of their
encore years. We need innovation. How about inventing a gap year for grown-ups, a
time when they could take a break, volunteer at home or abroad, or try a new
career direction? A gap year—perhaps financed by a new tax-exempt savings
vehicle we could call the Individual Purpose Account— could be a source of
renewal for those embarking on a new career chapter. What about midlife fellowships for those seeking
roles that combine purpose with a paycheck? And why stop there: Let’s rethink
our entire education system. Why cram so much learning into our teens and early
20s when we may want to move in a whole new direction in our 50s, 60s, and 70s? By capitalizing on the unique assets of this vast
population, we can make something extraordinary out of what so many think of as
the leftover years. The right public policies could even provide new chances
for social mobility. Today’s
boomers are the first wave passing into this new period, which will soon be
occupied by their longer-living children and grandchildren. In crafting our
society to respond, we’ll open up options for younger people, who could then make
life decisions with the expectation of more than one bite of the apple. We all have a stake in this project. It’s our
chance to turn the purported paradox of longevity—good for individuals,
terrible for society —into a vast payoff for all generations, today and
tomorrow.
Marc Freedman is founder and CEO of Civic
Ventures (encore.org). This article is
adapted and excerpted for“New Livelihoods”, the Fall 2011 issue ofYES!
Magazine, from his book The
Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife (PublicAffairs, 2011)  Susan LuxenbergPresident HomeSmart LLC |
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