Introductory Comments
Program Overview
Ways to Participate
Books-to-Action
Affinity Groups
Skills Based Volunteering
Boomer Resources
Partner Links
Relevant Articles & Websites
The Hands On Boomer Initiative engages older
adults in meaningful community service. We
create volunteer projects that combine
opportunities for learning and self-development
with volunteering. As a partner in a larger
collaborative
Life by Design NW,
the Boomer Initiative encourages, inspires and
empowers volunteers who have cultivated their
gifts and skills over many years to find
innovative and mutually beneficial ways to
giveback to their community.
Overview of the Boomer
Initiative
We are standing on the forefront of a powerful
cultural shift. In the next several years,
millions of Baby Boomers will transition out of
their primary careers and be searching for
opportunities to increasingly give-back to their
communities through new, meaningful work
experiences and civic engagement. Hands On
Greater Portland’s Boomer Initiative
is assisting Boomers and older adults to
assess their interests in volunteering and
connect them with meaningful volunteer
opportunities. We also prepare our non-profit
partners to re-tool their volunteer programs to
include opportunities that capture the gifts of the
50+ cohort while offering them personal fulfillment
and connection.
This Hands On Boomer
Initiative is a
partnership with
Life by Design NW, a consortium
of organizations led by Portland Community
College and including Portland State University,
Multnomah County Libraries, and several other
local organizations. Together, we are working
to support 50+ adults as we transform
and deepen our personal fulfillment while
strengthening our community with our wisdom and
gifts.
At Hands On Greater Portland, we are focusing
specifically on the rich experience of community
service through volunteerism as a means to
contribute to social innovation and personal
transformation. Hands On Greater Portland has
already connected over 3,000 Boomers and older
adults to volunteering. We currently offer
unique engagement opportunities that pair civic
learning and self-discovery with service
projects as well as access to relevant
resources, events and connections within our
immediate community.
We also have a volunteer Creative Design Team
laying the ground work for a program that will
connect highly skilled, mature professionals to
volunteer needs in our community.
Forging an honored place for eldership in our
community will be a transformative foundation to
this new program. Passing on the wisdom of our
gifts to our wider community transforms us
personally and lifts-up the greater whole. This
is the deeper mission of our Hands On Boomer
Initiative.
For more information about the Hands On
Boomer Initiative, please contact Karen Beal, PhD, at
503.200.3367 or
karen@handsonportland.org.
Ways to Participate
Books to Action
Love volunteering? Got a passion for reading?
The Hands On Boomer Initiative brings the two
together through Books-to-Action, which aims to
deepen volunteer understanding about relevant
social issues in our community through common
reading, discussion and service.
The Books-to-Action series is co-sponsored by
our Hands on Boomer Initiative and
Multnomah County Library,
partners in Life by Design NW. Boomers are
encouraged to sign-up and we also welcome an
intergenerational mix of participants for a rich
discussion with diverse perspectives.
Each Books-to-Action begins with a book
discussion followed by a community service
opportunity that reflects the issues addressed
by the author.
Affinity Groups
Pretty much everyone experiences positive,
life-affirming benefits from volunteering. And
for Boomers, civic engagement helps to cultivate
a greater sense of purpose and connection at a
time in our lives when, perhaps, we most desire
it.
To assist with finding direction, focus and
renewed identity through civic engagement, Hands
On convenes a monthly Affinity Group for Boomers
to come together to volunteer in our community
and then share with one another about our
experience. We also provide transformational
tools and resources for deepening understanding
of self and service while cultivating a
meaningful connection to the larger scheme of
things. For more information on a group contact
Karen@handsonportland.org.
Skills Based Volunteering for Hands On
Our organization utilizes the skills and
services of skilled volunteers to advance the
internal capacity of Hands On Greater Portland
to better meet the needs of our community. All
volunteers committed to these programs have the
opportunity to participate in workshops and
courses offered through our Service Academy
focusing on leadership development, interest
assessment and life planning. The following
programs are ways to integrally advance the
Hands On mission.
Volunteer Leadership
As a Hands On volunteer leader, you help to
leverage and sustain meaningful and productive
volunteer opportunities that serve the needs of
our community.
Read more
about our leadership program.
Speakers Bureau
An important part of our work is to inspire
people to serve and to inform about
opportunities to volunteer through Hands On
Greater Portland. If you would like to
utilize your presentation and networking skills
for the greater good, we encourage you to become
an inspired member of our Speakers Bureau. If
intrigued, please contact
Karen@handsongreaterportland.org.
Program Development
Many skilled volunteers are contributing to the
development of our Skills Based Volunteer
Program. We have a Creative Design Team that
has researched skills based volunteering,
conducted focus groups and is designing the
program’s procedural and training components.
We will need additional volunteers who can
skillfully guide the on-going trajectory of the
program and ensure its successful sustainability
and evolution. Possibilities include teaching
workshops, assisting skilled volunteers in
connecting with meaningful service opportunities
and assisting nonprofits in their readiness to
successfully engage skilled volunteers. If you
would like to creatively utilize your skills in
these ways, please contact
Karen@handsonoportland.org.
Administrative Advancement
Hands On has been fortunate to benefit from the
administrative know-how of volunteers and
interns. We continue to welcome such support in
our Hands On Greater Portland office in NW
Portland. If you have particular skills in this
area of expertise and would like to contribute
in this way, please contact
Dwight@handsonportland.org.
Boomer Resources
Partner Links
Life by Design NW
Hands On Boomer Initiative is a partner in Life
by Design NW, fostering a collaborative
community to where adults in mid life transition
turn to connect with resources and develop
relationships that will meet their needs, assist
and support their unique journeys, and provide
meaningful, and quality information and
programs.
Life by Design @ your library
The Multnomah County Library is also a partner
in Life by Design NW. Check their website for
regularly scheduled programs relevant to the
interests and needs of the Boomer generation.
AARP of Oregon
The state chapter of AARP located in Clackamas,
is also a partner in Life by Design NW, offering
advocacy and resources to older adults.
Relevant Articles, Books & Websites
Generational References
Generations: The History of America’s Future
1584-2069
by William Strauss and Neil Howe.
New Research on Boomers and Retirement
More to Give: Tapping the Talents of Baby
Boomers, Silent and GI Generations
Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic
Engagement
Exploring the Next Generation of Retirees: The
Baby Boomers
New Research on Boomers and Retirement
Websites & Organizations Focused on Boomers
Life by Design NW
Civic Ventures
Coming of Age
Richard Leider, Living on Purpose
References on Eldership & Boomers
The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure
in the 25 Years After 50 by Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second
Half of Life
by Marc Freedman
The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight
Gates of Wisdom
by Angeles Arrien
Claiming Your place at the Fire: Living the
Second Half of Your Life on Purpose
by Richard Leider & David Shapiro
From Age-ing to Sage-ing:
A Profound New Vision of Growing Older by
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald Miller
References & Websites on Skills Based
Volunteering
Tapping the Volunteer of Baby Boomers
Boomers are Ready for Nonprofits
Points of Light: Skills Based Volunteering
Deloitte Volunteer Impact Survey
Taproot Foundation
ReServe
Common Impact
