Public Policy & Aging E-Newsletter

Volume 2, Number 2, March 2008

This bimonthly e-newsletter highlights key developments and viewpoints in the field of aging policy from a wide variety of sources, including articles and reports circulating in the media, academy, think tanks, private sector, government and nonprofit organizations.

The goal of this email publication is to reach teachers, students, and citizens interested in aging-related issues, especially those who may not have sufficient access to policy information disseminated both in Washington and around the country.

A. A Call to National Service: In an effort to unite Americans of all backgrounds in a common cause to help address many unmet social needs, several leaders in the national service field have put forth a bold proposal to engage a million Americans in service. The proposal urges the next President and the 111th Congress to work together to expand voluntary national public service-including senior service programs like Senior Corps. Click here to view this report from the February 2008 issue of the American Interest journal.

B. Presidential Candidates Answer LCAO's Questions: In November 2007, the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations (LCAO) contacted the campaigns of all the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates and asked them to respond to a set of questions on critical aging issues facing the nation, including older adult civic engagement. Click here to read Senator Clinton and Senator Obama's views on various aging issues (to date, no Republican candidate has responded to these questions). Also, Senator Obama's campaign website includes additional detail about his plans for national voluntary public service programs which he declares would be a major cause of his presidency.

C. The GIVE Act: This month, the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives is likely to begin floor debate on the Generations Invigorating Volunteering and Education (GIVE) Act. The GIVE Act would reauthorize the Corporation for National and Community Service and its core programs: AmeriCorps, Learn and Serve America, and Senior Corps. Click here to learn more about this national service bill (HR 2857).

II. WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE COUNTRY?

A. Election Issues Surveys-View from the Early States: In these surveys of AARP members, two domestic issues-financial security and health care-are explored in depth with questions about how well candidates address each issue and who can best break through special interest and partisan gridlock to make real progress in these areas. Click here to view the survey results.

B. Gov. Schwarzenegger Creates a Cabinet Position for Service and Volunteering: In February 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order to create a Governor's Cabinet position for Service and Volunteering. This first-in-the-nation action will elevate the profile of citizen service in California and across the nation, help encourage more citizens to serve, and improve coordination of volunteer activities to meet community needs. Click here to view.

III. THIS ISSUE'S MAJOR POLICY STORY: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

More than 170 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, arguably the most astute observer of values and mores in the United States, claimed that a covenant existed in the New Republic that was not found in Europe: "All the citizens of a democracy...feel themselves subject to the same weakness and the same dangers; and their interest as well as their sympathy, makes it a rule with them to lend one another assistance when required." Voluntary associations, de Tocqueville stated, were institutions that Americans created to promote required social welfare services (broadly understood) in an expansive country where people were restless and mobile.

"Civic engagement," in my view, is the latest manifestation of de Tocqueville's ruminations about the functions of voluntary associations in a society with citizens who still have minimal regard for tradition and short-term sights on what lies ahead. Much has been written about "civic engagement" in publications for gerontologists. For readers of this E-Newsletter we have selected pieces that speak of the phenomenon in terms of it being a prototypical social movement for the proximate future. Ideologically and administratively, "civic engagement" relies on imaginative thinking and best practices to tap the talents and resources of older women and men from all backgrounds to fill gaps in the nation's infrastructure and to assist strangers in need.

- Andy Achenbaum

A. Will Retiring Boomers Form New Army of Volunteers?: As the first of the baby boom generation starts qualifying for Social Security benefits in 2008, some analysts predict they will form an army of willing and able volunteers. However, the jury is still out on boomer retirees' propensity to volunteer. This study from the Urban Institute looks at older adults retiring between 1996 and 2004 to see who engages in formal volunteering after retirement.

B. Are We Taking Full Advantage of Older Adults' Potential?: Staying engaged in work and formal volunteer activities at older ages significantly benefits the health and well-being of the volunteers themselves, the organizations that count on them, the people served by those organizations, and the economy. Yet, numerous studies show many older adults, especially those in low-income groups, sit out these opportunities. Given this untapped potential, shortages of volunteers and workers should prompt employers and nonprofits to court this talent. Click here to read this report from the Urban Institute.

C. The "Civic Enterprise" diagram: This diagram visually depicts the wide network of organizations-in the private, public, and nonprofit sector-that are working with the business, media, and philanthropic communities to leverage the talent and experience of older Americans. The hyperlinked graphic was prepared by Greg O'Neill, director of The Gerontological Society of America's Civic Engagement in an Older America project.

D. No Country for Old People?: Millions of boomers are headed not for endless vacation but for a new stage of work, driven both by the desire to remain productive and the need to make ends meet over longer life spans. In the next decade, the number of workers over 55 will grow at more than five times the rate of the overall workforce, which could lead to the biggest workforce transformation in the United States since women broke through to new roles decades ago. Read this article from the Washington Post here.

E. Building an Experience Dividend: This paper from Civic Ventures summarizes the progress of five states that are working hard to help both older workers looking for meaningful employment and volunteer work, and the public agencies and nonprofit organizations that need them. The efforts in these five states could prove to be the initial rumblings of a broader movement to leverage boomer talent to improve the quality of life in communities nationwide-in other words, to generate an experience dividend.

IV. WORTH NOTING

A. Report of the Taskforce on the Aging of the American Workforce: This taskforce from the U.S. Department of Labor was created as part of an effort to expand opportunities for older Americans choosing to remain in the workforce, and to develop proposals to address the challenges and opportunities of an aging workforce. Click here to read the report.

B. Golden Opportunity-Recruiting Baby Boomers into Government: The Partnership for Public Service, a national initiative that seeks to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation to serve, has released the results of a research project designed to assess the feasibility of attracting larger numbers of older, experienced workers into the federal government. Their findings suggest that the government has a golden opportunity to attract talented, experienced workers to federal service, but that agencies must take action to more effectively appeal to this cohort. Read the full report here.

C. Healthcare for America: The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship. Ironically, the United States spends more as a share of its economy on health care than any other nation, yet all this spending has failed to buy Americans health security. This plan from the Economic Policy Institute would extend coverage to all Americans while creating an effective framework for controlling medical costs and improving health care provision.

D. A Profile of Older Americans 2007: This Administration on Aging report compiles data about the older population, including size, income, employment, living arrangements, education, and other topics, as well as a special focus on the retirement resources of near-retirees. Click here to view the data.

A. Engaging 50+ Volunteers: From Renaissance50plus and the Catholic Immigration Centre based in Ottawa, Canada, this resource guide documents lessons learned and the challenge of planning and implementing activities that engage older adults, especially baby boomers, in volunteering.

B. The Journal: AARP has launched The Journal, a new bi-annual international policy publication that addresses health and financial security issues facing a global aging population. The current issue features an article on the global repercussions of dementia, written by Marc Wortmann of Alzheimer's Disease International.

C. AXA Retirement Scope: The Retirement Scope Survey from AXA aims to examine people's retirement dreams and expectations, to see how the realities of today's retirees match up with the projections of tomorrow's retired population. Click here to read this survey.

VI. PERSPECTIVES ON POLICY: ROB HUDSON, EDITOR, PP&AR

At a time when many Americans are alleged to have become increasingly isolated and apathetic, a "new" senior population is emerging, one marked by better health, vast experience, and expressing widespread distain toward joining "a reserve army of the leisured." Rather than being identified with the "deficit model of aging," which centers on needs and benefits, the recent civic engagement movement sees older adults as a population fully capable of being productive and contributing to American life.

The Fall 2006 issue of Public Policy & Aging Report explored the promise of senior participation while also acknowledging its potential pitfalls. Sabrina Reilly from the National Council on Aging describes how older Americans are meaningfully engaging in community activities. Andy Achenbaum places civic engagement in an historical context, discussing how organizations like Civic Ventures can and do build on those historical concerns. I contribute a political analysis, noting how commentators on the right and left view elders' civic engagement and the larger purposes it might serve. Finally, Martha Holstein outlines the collective fate that might befall older people-women in particular-should the civic engagement mantra redefine the social and economic place of elders in American life.

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Newsletter Editors: Ellyn Emsley and Greg O'Neill, National Academy on an Aging Society; Andy Achenbaum, University of Houston.

The Public Policy and Aging E-Newsletter is supported in part by a grant from the AARP Office of Academic Affairs.