CoA Program Websites
Review
a report for Bevan Rogel, Encore Tampa Bay
prepared by Doris Reeves-Lipscomb, groups-that-workonline.com
and Women’s Learning Studio, 727.723.7714
May 2013
Bevan Rogel—bevanrogel@gmail.com
Doris Reeves-Lipscomb—groupsthatwork@verizon.net
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Highlights ...................................................................................................................................................... 2
Questions Raised by Websites Review ......................................................................................................... 4
Appendix A .................................................................................................................................................... 6
National CoA Program Website Review........................................................................................................ 6
CoA Local Site Websites Review ................................................................................................................... 7
CoA Austin ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Central Pennsylvania CoA ......................................................................................................................... 7
Cincinnati Ohio CoA .................................................................................................................................. 7
Delaware State .......................................................................................................................................... 8
Kansas City Metro CoA .............................................................................................................................. 8
New York City ............................................................................................................................................ 8
San Francisco Bay Area CoA ...................................................................................................................... 9
North Texas CoA ....................................................................................................................................... 9
CoA Strategic Partners ................................................................................................................................ 10
CoA Broward County............................................................................................................................... 10
Experience Matters Arizona.................................................................................................................... 10
1
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
Introduction
Bevan Rogel is eager to connect baby boomers to their “encore” careers in the Tampa Bay area. To
effect this change, baby boomers need assistance to identify their passion and/or purpose, retool to
acquire necessary knowledge and skills, and connect with employment, civic, and entrepreneurial
resources to move forward. Bevan has also recognized the need for a paradigm shift among nonprofits,
governments, corporations, and other institutions in order for their leaders to seek the untapped
potential of baby boomers as volunteers, employees, innovators, and entrepreneurs.
Bevan has identified the Coming of Age educational series developed by the Intergenerational Center at
Temple University as a valuable resource to educate baby boomers and organizational leaders on what
could be. Its curricula help nonprofits and businesses develop more capacity for allying with baby
boomers as employees and volunteers AND help boomers explore and plan their futures and build
volunteer leadership skills.
This website review of Coming of Age local sites and strategic partners reveals a variety of program
structures, reliance on social media, and integration with other programs serving baby boomers. There
is no one best way to bring CoA resources to a community but many ways that will flow from the
strengths and assets that can be marshaled in the area.
Caveat: With one exception—Kansas City Metro CoA—all CoA program data reviewed in this report
came from their websites and related social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Using websites to
gather basic data about programs may be lucrative in the short-term but it could be misleading to assess
the vitality of programs with website data alone. Some websites are not up to date or are otherwise
incomplete. Other websites may project vibrant programs because they have superb content managers
and copywriters. The overriding lesson to be drawn from this review is to use websites as a starting
point for more focused and in-depth information gathering.
This report offers findings in Highlights and suggests issues in Questions Raised by Website Review to
explore with national and local CoA program leaders. Appendix A contains website descriptions and
excerpts from websites.
Highlights

Most active CoA programs—Websites projecting the most active CoA programs are in NYC, San
Francisco, and North Texas. National CoA strategic partners in Ft. Lauderdale/Broward County and
Experience Matters in Phoenix also seem to offer a blend of Encore/CoA and other supportive
boomer engagement activities including stipends and fellowships.
Based on website analysis alone, it appears that CoA programs in Cincinnati, OH and Delaware State
might be struggling or achieving limited impact. Kansas City CoA program and CoA Austin were
placed in this group, too, originally. However, a phone call to Kansas City CoA director Sandra Aust
to check on a date revealed wholehearted leadership. But they aren’t exploiting their website or
2
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
social media such as Facebook to advertise their good works. Even its Inspiring Opportunities enewsletter seems to have stopped in 2011 based on its absence from the website newsletter
archive. In contrast, CoA Austin favors Facebook to do social reporting and resource sharing instead
of its website. Maintaining websites AND social media requires organizations to commit staff to
manage and sustain up-to-date information sharing and interactive channels of communication.

Facebook masters—The San Francisco Bay Area CoA and North Texas CoA are Facebook page whips!
North Texas CoA uses its Facebook page to raise questions, link to resources, provide pictures,
announce events, etc. The infusion of new posts is almost constant. The San Francisco Bay Area
CoA also updated its Facebook page just hours before my visit and uses Twitter and YouTube to
share ideas and videos and issue reminders of upcoming deadlines.

Rebranding opportunities—Some CoA sponsors have rebranded their RSVP program roots to appeal
to baby boomers. These include The Shepherd Center CoA sponsor in Kansas City and the Austin, TX
CoA sponsor. Relabeling RSVP is a positive move because national data collected in the early 2000’s
showed that baby boomers were turned off by “senior” labels.

Organizational birthdates—The oldest CoA programs are about 4-5 years old. The newest seems to
be North Texas UT; it issued its inaugural newsletter for Fall/Winter 2012. San Francisco Bay Area
CoA is recent, too, or at least its newsletter may have started in the last year or so.

Locating and sustaining CoA programs—Generally, CoA programs seem to do well when they are
part of a robust line-up of services aimed at older people. They also seem to have multiple income
streams from a consortium of organizations including local and community foundations. CoA
programming may benefit from being housed in well-established, respected community
organizations but a start-up that forms organically from community stakeholders can work well, too;
witness Experience Matters Arizona.
North Texas CoA is largely an educational approach enriched by classes/learning opportunities
offered by four area universities and colleges. From its website: “the College of Public Affairs and
Community Service (PACS) at the University of North Texas (UNT) sponsors CoA with additional
support provided by the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program serving Denton County (RSVP).”
To keep perspective on how long it takes to create impact, Experience Matters Arizona appears to
be a well-rounded, well-supported standalone organization doing many things to help boomers
engage in the community. It started in 2009. Its impact report on its website through 2010 states
that it had:
o
o
o
Held Three Learning Lab workshops for 53 nonprofit organizations
Offered Explore Your Future curriculum to 24 employees of SCF Arizona
Matched over 70 adults age 50+ to classroom volunteer opportunities through Your
Experience Counts.
3
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
o
o
Built its organizational membership to include 30 nonprofit organizations, 20 corporations
and 50 individual sponsors
Presented An Evening with Marc Freedman, to over 170 guests at the Herberger Theater
Center.
It projected a tripling of activities in 2011 but the website was not updated with annual reports for
2011 and 2012. Nevertheless, it offered the most open glimpse at past performance of any CoA
program reviewed.

Matching boomers to community jobs—Some sites advertise paid and volunteer employment
opportunities at area organizations. These offerings, if kept current, would seem to entice baby
boomers to visit a website periodically.

CoA curricula—Sandra Aust, CoA director at the Shepherd Center in Kansas City, could not say
enough good things about the CoA curriculum and support from Dick Goldberg. She said that the
curricula are updated each year based on feedback from franchisees’ experiences. She spoke
glowingly about the impact the workshops have on directionless baby boomers to figure out their
next steps whether it is returning to work, volunteering, etc. She also said the Learning Labs for
nonprofits are excellent. Too often, she noted that unenlightened nonprofit volunteer managers
rely on the “old” way of recruiting volunteers, assigning them to work without regard to their skills
or interests, and assuming that the volunteers will happily perform any work day after day, week
after week. She cited national statistics documenting that one out of three baby boomers said they
would never volunteer again based on the poor treatment and lack of respect to which they were
subjected by nonprofits. Sandra gave examples of how the CoA curriculum equips volunteer
managers and EDs to attract baby boomers to volunteer by identifying and valuing the skills they
bring to the organization by matching them with meaningful work to be done.

In summary—It is not an either/or CoA or Encore approach in a community. One can knit together
an array of services/opportunities for baby boomers using a variety of funding sources and sponsors.
It all depends on the strengths and assets in a community as to how one might design a local
initiative. CoA curricula were developed to incorporate and build on ideas in Marc Freedman’s
writings and presentations in 2002. Therefore, inspiration and how-to’s can be gathered from
different sources for harmonious interplay and flow in a community.
Questions Raised by Websites Review
1. What is the best way to build awareness and momentum for starting CoA programming in a
community?
2. What are the best organizational sponsors to seek for a CoA program in order to ensure its
sustainability?
3. What are the pros and cons of a gerontology center in a university sponsoring CoA curricula in a
community vs. a standalone organization vs. embedding the CoA learning series within a funding
organization such as a foundation?
4. Could a franchisee virtualize the curriculum to work with baby boomers online in addition to
face-to-face workshops or even replace the f2f with online workshops? Or put another way; is
there a geographic scope of service for a CoA franchisee?
4
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
5. Are the curricula only available to nonprofits to purchase and deliver in an area?
6. How does one price Coming of Age participation for nonprofits, businesses, or individual baby
boomers?
7. What criteria would a potential franchisee have to satisfy before becoming a strategic partner or
CoA vendor?
8. What is the practical difference between a CoA strategic partner and local CoA site?
9. What standards of performance must a local CoA site satisfy in order to remain a franchisee?
Has a CoA local site ever lost its franchisee status?
10. What future activities does the national CoA plan to undertake to bolster civic engagement by
baby boomers or others in the country? What will happen when the current director leaves his
position? Are current levels of support from CoA national to local franchisees expected to
continue?
5
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
Appendix A
National CoA Program Website Review
From its website, Coming of Age is all about strengthening communities through:
“Building capacity of nonprofits to capture the energy and expertise of people 50+ to
meet your organization’s goals


Learning lab—two day program for participants from nonprofits and public
sector organizations on how to benefit from the untapped resources that
people age 50 and over can bring to organizations and how to market
opportunities to people over 50/create supportive environments within
organizations
Train the trainer by Temple University’s Intergenerational Center—scaling up #
of trainers in community to capture the energy and expertise of people age 50+;
a how-to for taking Learning Lab content to local audiences
Empowering people 50+ to step up and contribute in a meaningful way…



Explore your Future interactive workshop series presented in community and
corporate settings. Session I: What has influenced me? Session II: Who am I
now? Session III: How can I realize my dreams? Session IV: How do I create an
engaged life?
Advocacy Training—strategies to clearly and concisely make a case about issues
of importance for themselves and others in their community.
Volunteer Leadership training—one day workshop for volunteers 50+ who have
interest and ability to manage and support other volunteers, working in project
teams and maintaining effective communication with staff. Modules 1-6 on
Leader Volunteers and the Changing World of Volunteerism; Non positional
leadership; identifying your motivating interests and skills; negotiating your
role; understanding nonprofit culture; dealing with conflict.
Promoting positive aging for getting your organization started…


Cutting Edge Strategies for Senior Centers--The cutting edge strategies for
senior centers costs $1,500 plus trainer’s travel and expenses.
Explore your Future train the trainer program—two day workshops to facilitate
the “Explore Your Future” series. Will leave the program with the tools to help
people reimagine their futures, get unstuck, and generate fresh optimistic ideas,
including new ideas for work. Trainers will have the use of the copyrighted
curriculum and course materials for one-year.
6
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites


Coming soon—The Age for Change: An E-book. Discussion topics for book clubs,
community groups, and others 50+ to consider what the “Age of Change” means
for them.
Coming soon—Conversations on the Journey—six session discussion series that
features video clips of Boomervision! Speakers that trigger group discussions.”
CoA Local Site Websites Review
CoA Austin
Its website features free MLKing, Jr. Day of Planning webinars (January?) and President’s Volunteer
Service Award (started under George W. Bush in 2003—President’s Council on Service and Civic
Participation) for 23 CoA volunteers on 3.20.13. Website has tabs for People 50+, For organizations,
Opportunities, What’s New, Report Hours, and About Us.
About Us explains rebranding that happened in 2010 from Travis County Retired & Senior Volunteer
Program (RSVP) to CoA. They added workshops for older people and nonprofits. They use Facebook
and buzz words like engagement. It includes a short history of national initiative; for instance, Civic
Ventures in 2001 inspired Philadelphia-based organizations to start Coming of Age in 2002. From
website:
“In 2010, Travis County RSVP significantly broadened its scope of service and reinvented itself as Coming of Age Austin Metro. The change was implemented in
response to Baby Boomers’ vision and approach toward living a fulfilling, rewarding, and
engaged life beyond full-time employment.”
Basically, the website is short on content and suggests that they are struggling to keep their website upto-date. But its Facebook page is highly active with outgoing information. What are the implications for
CoA services?
Central Pennsylvania CoA
This program started in 2008 by accepting the invitation of CoA Philadelphia for assistance in planning a
local initiative. In May 2009, the coalition accepted a Boomers Night Out kick-off event. The
organization has presented Coming of Age workshops and a Learning Lab. It has a presence in Adams,
Cumberland, Dauphin, and Franklin counties. It will offer a one-day Boomer Workshop on June 1
organized in three tracks: connect and contribute opportunities; explore your future; and aging in place.
Cincinnati Ohio CoA
This is a one page website. When you click through to Learning Lab page—access is denied. It
advertises the national CoA e-book. It offers a Coming of Age slide program on older people doing neat
and interesting things devised by WHYY Wider Horizons in Philadelphia. Only national examples of
activities are emphasized. There is no reliance on social media evidenced on the website.
7
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
Delaware State
This site markets to boomers and nonprofits on home page. It includes a Facebook page link but the last
entry was made in 2010. Program is sponsored by Delaware Community Foundation. Its tabs include
Home, What’s New, Opportunities, Videos, Resources, Subscribe, About Us, Contact Us, and Newsletter
Archives in left navigation column. The What’s New page is from 1/31/2011. Opportunities page also
dates from 2011. Resources are even more dated but it promises bi-weekly updates to website. COADE
is a coalition of nonprofits, originally convened by WHYY with grant from DE community foundation. On
newsletters, it looks like time stopped two-three years ago.
Kansas City Metro CoA
Its entry home page advertises workshops from Summer 2012. It has tabs on Who We Are, What We
Do, What’s New, Opportunities, Inspiring Opportunities, Top Stories and Accomplishments, What
nonprofits are saying about Learning Labs, Resources, Contact Us. On Who We Are—“Shepherd’s center
Central has been in existence since 1972 providing quality services and programs.” It redid its mission
statement to focus on those 50+. It notes that it added three new programs in 2009: Coming of Age, KC
Caregiver Supportline, and Coming of Age/RSVP Johnson County. The Coming of Age: Kansas City
explanation says it has four components: “dynamic, informative, interactive” website (not true), Explore
Your Future, Learning Labs, but doesn’t list a fourth! On a separate page, it offers a newsletter; last
issue was August 2011. It has some moving stories from boomers+ who are starring in their own lives.
It does not link to a Facebook page.
New York City
Partners include Community Service Society, JASA, PSS, SAGE, The Transition Network, hudson guild,
NESC, and UnH, and Emblem Health, NYC Service (govt.) Tabs include For People 50+, For Organizations,
Opportunities, What’s New, About Us, and Our Stories. The Newsletter page is full of neat and timely
events with Transition Network offering a wide variety of topics/seminars. The newsletter even
advertises an Encore Career Handbook event with author Marci Alboher. On Opportunities page, orgs
list opportunities such as New York State of Mind volunteer roles plus Teach a class/lead an activity
virtually for seniors, CoA workshops on learning how to facilitate Explore your Future workshops,
Capturing the Energy and Expertise of People Age 50+, etc. Over three pages of opportunities are
presented with a couple of them being paid roles. There is repetition between For Organizations and
Opportunities tabs. What’s New reviews past events in March and February 2013 but quickly moves
back to 2012. From website:
“In 2010, Rimas Jasin, Executive Director of PSS, took the lead in establishing COA in New
York. Working with Dick Goldberg, Director of the national office of Coming of Age, PSS soon
found five innovative agencies to partner with it.
Spearheaded by PSS (Presbyterian Senior Services), the initiative consists of seven other
leading, innovative and diverse nonprofit agencies partnering together. They are:
Community Service Society/RSVP
8
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
Hudson Guild
JASA (Jewish Association Serving the Aging)
National Executive Services Corps (NESC)
SAGE (Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Elders)
The Transition Network
United Neighborhood Houses (UNH)
With special funding from NYC SERVICE and generous support from founding sponsor
EmblemHealth, Coming of Age: NYC offers workshops, trainings and special presentations to the
public.”
San Francisco Bay Area CoA
On its home page, it has What’s New that advertises upcoming June Explore Your Future workshop
series in Emeryville, CA and new Learning Lab also in June in Oakland for $89 for nonprofit professionals.
What’s New also links to volunteer or paid opportunities—first opportunity is part-time paid grocery
shopper and home delivery person, second is training to become a part time, paid Healthier Living
Workshop leader, third one is to become an unpaid usher at Mozart Ensemble concert, but most of the
other ones are paid. Events calendar is under construction with many things coming. From website:
Coming of Age: Bay Area, launched in 2010, seeks to capture and utilize the talent, passion and
skills of individuals 50+ with exciting programs that benefit the entire community. Coming of
Age: Bay Area is sponsored by Northern California Presbyterian Homes and Services (NCPHS),
with additional funding provided by the Corporation for National and Community Service/RSVP
grant, and other community grants, and in partnership with KQED.
North Texas CoA
This website has a very active Facebook link with up to the hour news. CoA is a partnership between
RSVP and U of North Texas. Tabs are For People 50+, For Organizations, For Businesses, What’s New,
Events, and About Us. Under For People 50+, two Explore Your Future workshops in area in May and
June are advertised. On same tab for resources, there are links to Center for Achievement and Lifelong
Learning at UNT (“Emeritus College where Learning is for Life), Lifelong Learning with Tarrant County
College, Lifelong Learning with the Dallas County Community College District, Seniors Active in Learning
at Collin College (non-credit, wide array of courses on History, Math, Science and Economics, Current
Events, Visiting Professors, Literature and Writing, Art and Art Appreciation, etc. interactive with peers,
often follows a six week schedule excerpt for Art, iPhone, iPad, Games, Spanish, and volunteer
opportunities). It’s hard to say how current paid and unpaid job listings are. There is one short page of
resource links for organizations. It offers Learning Lab in May 2013 and EYF workshops for orgs as
requested. What’s New newsletter was issued in Fall/Winter 2012 as an inaugural issue. From website:
Coming of Age: North Texas is housed in the Educational Consortium for Volunteerism (ECV) in the
College of Public Affairs and Community Service (PACS) at the University of North Texas (UNT).
Partner is RSVP serving Denton County.
9
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites
CoA Strategic Partners
CoA Broward County
CoA is offered by the Community Foundation of Broward County. CoA does not have its own website.
The website describes a “Re-engage for Good” initiative, multi-year effort to engage retired and soon to
retire baby boomers. There is an interesting graphic game board that shows how and where to reengage in Broward County. Partners include Greater Ft. Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce (part-time
stipend job opportunities and Boomer Special Think Tanks); HandsOn Broward for corporations to
create career transition systems for retiring employees into nonprofit sector; Impact Broward (formerly
RSVP) for matching retirees' interests with community needs; Leadership Broward for retired LB alumni
and residents to learn about issues in Broward; and Community Foundation of Broward--stipend pool to
incentivize nonprofits to establish new work and volunteer models to engage skilled and talented retired
professionals to engage on project based work. Website offers Marc Freedman’s blog post from March
4, 2013 on a new vision for retirement: productive and meaningful.
Experience Matters Arizona
This website has events on calendar on home page through June including Learning Lab and Explore
your Future workshop and guest speaker Dr. Lattie Coor on May 7, An Evening of Purpose. Tabs include
Who We Are, What We Do, Get Connected, Events, News, Contact, etc. It has Experience Matters video
featuring Nora Hannah, Chief consortium officer, and individuals telling their stories and motivating
others (well done) on “Connecting Talent with Community”. It has good self-discovery kinds of learning.
They offer Experience Matters Encore Fellowships; 8-12 fellows are selected twice a year. It has
delivered Explore Your Future workshops and Learning Lab for nonprofits in past. It brings together
Service by Design, AmeriCorps, Encore Fellowships, and CoA learning opportunities.
Experience Matters Consortium says it is part of national movement that sprang up as a result of
Harvard School of Public Health—MetLife Foundation Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement’s
2004 report on Reinventing Aging: Baby boomers and Civic Engagement. Virginia G. Piper Trust and AZ
Community Foundation responded by investigating key questions in a local perspective. (Note: GSA did
public forum and civic engagement focus groups that received backing from Piper Foundation in 2004.)
Experience Matters was a three part process back then and became a stand-alone org in early 2009.
From website: to date [at the end of 2010], Experience Matters accomplished the following:




Presented three Learning Lab workshops for 53 nonprofit organizations to build their capacity to
engage highly skilled adults. This program is currently funded by the Nina Mason Pulliam
Charitable Trust with three more workshops anticipated for 2011.
Offered the Explore Your Future curriculum to 24 employees of SCF Arizona to assist employees
age 50 and older to explore their futures so that they can more effectively connect and
contribute to their communities; 15 more workshops are anticipated for 2011.
Matched over 70 adults age 50+ to classroom volunteer opportunities through Your Experience
Counts.
Is on track to include 30 nonprofit organizations, 20 corporations and 50 individual sponsors as
members of the Experience Matters Consortium.
10
Review of Coming of Age Program Websites

Presented An Evening with Marc Freedman, the CEO of Civic Ventures and the preeminent
thought leader on Baby Boomers, Encore Careers and social purpose work, to over 170 guests at
the Herberger Theater Center.
11