Lifelong Learning Thursday

Nancy Merz Nordstrom, author of Learning Later, Living Greater: The Secret of Making the Most of Your After 50 Years will share the benefits of Lifelong Learning on Thursdays.

LEARNING LATER, LIVING GREATER:
The Secret for Making the Most of Your After-50 Years.

…a Health Club for Your Mind. Body and Spirit!

Up to this point we have discussed programs and opportunities for engaging in lifelong learning that are already in existence; they’ve been up and running for some time. Now we’re going to take a quick peek at some of the new and innovative ideas that are being developed and put in place for the 21st century.

The goal of these next few blogs is to help you realize that many new options to enhance and enrich your Third Age will be presenting themselves to you in the coming decades. With 76+ million adults reaching 50 and beyond in the next 20-30 years, new opportunities will be almost limitless. So keep your ears and eyes open for ways to ensure a vibrant, alert mind, no matter what your age. You will be pleasantly surprised. As Bob Dylan said, “The times they are a-changin.”

Already there are exciting new opportunities on the horizon. Here is the first of them.

The Next Chapter TM
Earlier, we talked in-depth about Civic Ventures, ® the San Francisco based organization that serves as a catalyst and incubator of both ideas and programs that help America achieve an “experience dividend.”

They have now developed The Next Chapter Initiative ™ to help communities create places and programs that provide older adults with direction and connection as they begin the next chapter of their lives.

The Next Chapter concept is based on the premise that access to meaningful choices for work, service, learning and social connections play a crucial role in the vitality of older adults and will enrich the life of the community.

The Next Chapter program envisions community places or programs that offer older adults:

1. Life Planning Programs – to help assess current status and strengths, explore and envision future possibilities and make choices by setting goals and plans.
   
2. Meaningful Engagement Through Work and Service – to encourage and help navigate opportunities to take on public service roles, through paid work and volunteer service.
   
3. Continued Learning for New Directions – to provide a broad range of learning options that enrich lives and retool for new careers.
   
4. Peer and Community Connections – places and programs that foster connections to people of all ages in the community.

THURSDAY’S THOUGHT…

Samuel Ullman, the community activist said, “Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living…” So very true!

For more information on Learning Later, Living Greater visit http://www.learninglater.com/ You can purchase Learning Later, Living Greater at http://www.amazon.com/

Till Next Time…