States Seek to Tap Into Growing Resource: Older Volunteers

Arizona, long a magnet for retired people, has emerged as a leader among a growing number of states that are working to keep older Americans involved in meaningful work, lifelong learning, or volunteering.

As legions of baby boomers near traditional retirement age, many states are moving to ensure that charities, government, and businesses tap older people to work on social problems and fill labor shortages — and most of the states are moving at a faster pace than the federal government.

“States are closer to their own demographics — and the consequences of an aging population: the brain drain, boomer retirements, and work-force shortages in education, health-care, and nonprofit sectors,” says Judy Goggin, vice president of Civic Ventures, in San Francisco, a think tank that promotes “civic engagement” of older people. “There is an increasing need to address big problems with local solutions.”

For example, Arizona offers the following projects, many of which grew out of discussions it held in November 2005 with business leaders and workers ages 50 and older:

• The Mature Workforce Transition Center, housed at GateWay Community College, in Phoenix, is expected to open this month. The initial focus will be on helping older workers make the transition into education, health-care, and social-service jobs, three areas in which the state faces immediate shortages.

  The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, in Scottsdale, contributed a three-year, $400,000 grant to develop the center at GateWay.

• AZMatureWorkers.com, a Web site that lists paid and unpaid jobs at nonprofit, for-profit, and government offices. The site also allows older job seekers to post their résumés.
• The Mature Worker Connection, a program in Pima County that offers free job-placement help to older adults. Employment specialists at the Area Agency on Aging help assess skills and locate training and other assistance. From January 2006 to December 2007, the program placed 342 workers, one-third in nonprofit jobs. There are two satellite sites, and two more are scheduled to start operations this year.
• A “mature-worker friendly” certification program, which starts in May. The state Department of Commerce is in the process of setting standards for hiring, recruiting, and retaining older employees in nonprofit, government, and business jobs.

Arizona has spent little or no state money on those efforts, says Melanie Starns, director of the Governor’s Office on Aging. “We haven’t needed new regulations or executive orders to do this,” she says. “We’ve taken a collaborative, cooperative approach instead.”

New residents of Arizona say the efforts have been a big help as they seek nonprofit work.

Two years ago, the Mature Worker Connection helped Dan Toth, 58, of Oro Valley, find a volunteer-recruiter job at ReadingSeed, a children’s literacy program operated by the Rotary Club of Tucson. Mr. Toth, a former manager of financial and capital support for the state of Colorado, struggled for six months to find work after moving to Arizona in 2004.

“One of the fallouts of relocating is you lose your network,” he says. “It was a comfort to know that someone else, like the Mature Worker Connection, was helping to spread your name around and had your best interests at heart. It helps build a bridge to employment.”

Surveys suggest that programs like those offered in Arizona will appeal to baby boomers.

Nearly 60 percent of adults ages 50 and older who plan to retire expect to volunteer for a nonprofit group or local organization, while an additional 14 percent plan to seek training or learn a new skill to switch careers, according to a recent poll by Experience Wave, a group in Washington that is pushing policy makers to provide incentives to keep older adults involved as employees and volunteers.

“There are federal and state policies that if tweaked could really unleash the potential of this huge cohort of people to do good,” says Kathy Miller, Experience Wave’s project director.

Though many states are aware of looming shortages in the work-force and volunteer ranks, they are just beginning to act and may not be moving fast enough to keep up with boomer retirements, says Tom Endres, vice president for civic engagement at the National Council on Aging, in Washington.

“States are beginning to recognize that their fastest-growing resource is older adults who are defining what to do in the new third age of life,” he says.

Actions in Other States

While many of the state projects are aimed at bolstering the general work force, they will help charities that are facing the same labor shortages and baby-boomer retirements as everyone else. Other examples of actions states and local jurisdications are taking:

• New York passed a law last year to create a Mature Worker Task Force to identify obstacles that hamper older workers, as well as the best ways to hire, retain, and retrain them. Appointments are expected this spring. “We’re not doing all we could to tap the potential of people who may not want to fully retire but who may want other options,” says Michael J. Burgess, director of the state’s Office for the Aging.
• Last May, Maryland’s governor signed the Baby Boomer Initiative Act, which will establish a council of state government representatives and business leaders, education officials, and experts on aging to develop approaches to keep boomers engaged in work and volunteerism. The council is expected to make recommendations about ways the state could encourage older people to work on social problems, including volunteering in schools, nonprofit groups, and government agencies.
• The National Governors Association, with a $1.2-million, three-year grant from Atlantic Philanthropies, in New York, is working with representatives of eight states (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Maine, New Mexico, Ohio, and Wyoming) to look at ways to get older people involved in solving state problems. The group met last summer and will keep in touch via the Web throughout the year.

  Linda Hoffman, senior policy analyst at the association’s Center for Best Practices, in Washington, says that in spite of some common ground, the states are facing different issues and are customizing their solutions: Many new businesses have recently moved into Alabama, for example, so the state is looking at older workers as a way to offset labor shortages. Maine wants to increase volunteerism among older adults. New Mexico has high rates of poverty and wants to help older people find work. Ohio is focused on labor and retraining in response to layoffs in the auto industry.

• Some towns offer cash-poor older homeowners a break on property taxes if they volunteer in schools, nonprofit groups, and public agencies. People in Provincetown, Mass., who qualify by age and income level can earn a $750 tax credit, for example, if they volunteer 100 hours of community service. Similar incentives are in place in towns and counties in Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

California’s Efforts

California, which in February became the first state to create a cabinet position to promote volunteerism, is now following up on the findings from a major report it released last summer, California’s Aging Opportunity: Building a Legacy of Good Works by Older Californians. One in five Californians will be over age 60 by 2020.

The report, paid for by the California Wellness Foundation, of Woodland Hills, recommended several ways the state could increase the number of older volunteers:

• Expand the California Volunteer Matching Network, a statewide Web site linking potential volunteers of all ages with more than 30,000 positions. The state plans a $450,000 marketing campaign to promote the site, which will include radio and TV public-service announcements and brochures and other materials to be handed out at local volunteer centers.
• Get older volunteers involved in helping state programs by establishing coordinating offices or other mechanisms to oversee volunteers, perhaps using the model of the California Parks Department, which has more than 17,000 volunteers.
• Create more-intensive volunteering opportunities for 10- to 20-hour-a-week positions by establishing a state grant program and using financial and other rewards for their services, approaches that have worked for national-service programs such as Senior Corps, Experience Corps, AmeriCorps, and VISTA. The report says incentives for older volunteers might include stipends, health insurance, travel reimbursement, prescription-drug benefits, and transferable education awards.
• Help nonprofit groups in the state expand their capacity to put older adults to work by creating a state liaison to local organizations and increasing the role of CaliforniaVolunteers, the state agency that coordinates national-service and other volunteer programs, to work with nonprofit organizations and government agencies to support the recruiting, screening, and training of older adults for service positions.
• Establish “life-options centers” where older Californians could get help with skills assessments, training, and information on second careers or volunteering. Such centers could be placed in existing institutions like libraries, community colleges, and centers for older people.
• Pass state laws to eliminate barriers to volunteering.
• Reduce costs for criminal-background checks for volunteers who work with children and streamline the necessary screening process.
• Help volunteer organizations manage risk by providing training and low-cost liability insurance and ensuring that the state Good Samaritan laws provide coverage to volunteers.

“The challenge that lies ahead is not one of innovative ideas but one of investment dollars,” says Karen Baker, the former executive director of CaliforniaVolunteers, who was just promoted to the new position of secretary of service and volunteering. “Our state budget is limited, so we will be looking to partner with those foundations that want to put our eager seniors to work improving their communities.”