Jobfinder sites

Seniornet.org

2009-10-15T13:43:56Z

Does anyone have any personal or library-related experiences with Senior Net, about which we have posted before? It almost seems like a competitor to libraries, but maybe 'potential partner' is a more hopeful term.

SeniorNet is a nonprofit organization of computer-using adults, age 50+ with a mission to provide older adults education for and access to computer technologies to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom.

There is some free educational content on the site, but most of it seems driven towards joining($40; $30 to renew) and taking classes online or at learning centers. Members get “privileges” in Learning Centers and online.

www.seniornet.org and (800) 747-6848.

MetLife study: Grandparents Generous with Money, Not with Advice

2009-09-30T13:34:56Z

MetLife did what they termed a 'quickpoll' (actually 7 pages) here.

It shows, among a lot of other things, that today's grandparents throw money at their grandchildren, not necessarily time.

"Nearly two-thirds (63%) of America’s grandparentshave provided financial assistance or monetary gifts to their grandchildren in the last
five years ... The median amount provided was $3,000 over that period, and the average amount was $8,661..."

and that

"While some grandparents get involved with providing financial advice and counsel, most do not."

Time to hit grampy up for a loan.

On a personal note, my ex-father-in-law gave my son $50 in singles for his 9th birthday. It was fun and especially cool because looked like a LOT of money.

Aging in Stride

2009-06-03T18:33:15Z

I believe I've mentioned Aging in Stride's electronic newsletter before, but just in case I haven't or it's gotten lost in the shuffle.

http://enews.aginginstride.org/ is the site, which is of course available off the 'usual' Aging in Stride] site.

This month's newsletter includes:

10 Myths and Facts About Falls (e.g., Each year, one in three people age 65 experiences a fall serious enough to require medical attention)

Rx Friendship: Add More Socialization to Your Healthy Aging Prescription (which reinforces that "Loneliness can be a debilitating, distressing condition" for people)

Age-Related Eye Problems Can Lead to Computer Vision Syndrome (gives readers tips such as "Keep blinking. To minimize the chances of developing dry eye when using a computer, make an effort to blink frequently. Blinking keeps the front surface of the eye moist")

Be Healthy and Safe in the Garden (e.g., "Limit distractions, use chemicals and equipment properly, and be aware of possible hazards to lower your risk for injury")

And there's a wordfind. I always seem to find unintentional words in those.

PositScience's Brain Fitness Newsletter

2009-03-17T15:47:30Z

Hi all,

I subscribe to PositScience's Brain Fitness Newsletter (I think it's monthly, go here to subscribe) and this week I'm glad I do.

It has an unusually large amount of useful information. They let me know that it's Brain Awareness Week (I am not generally aware of my brain; how about you?), a week's worth of brain-healthy recipes, link to some studies and articles and to their brain fitness channel, and more.

I'm not shilling for them, but I think these resources are worth a look.

Open mindedly,

Doug

Making Your Web Site Senior Friendly

2009-02-25T16:31:38Z

This is an undated pdf published by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine.

Rocket science it's not; (e.g., "use a sans serif typeface") but there are good bits here for those of us that do web content and, importantly, that we can pass along to the webmasters to whom we are subject.

Other tips:

Use single mouse clicks to access information.
Use pull down menus sparingly.
Solicit unbiased comments from older adults through focus groups, usability testing or other means, to evaluate the accessibility and friendliness of the web site.

FWIW.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/checklist.pdf

RE: Metlife's Mature Market Institute

2009-02-20T15:19:34Z

That's very, very useful! Thanks.

Metlife's Mature Market Institute

2009-02-18T14:48:46Z

Has anyone seen this site? MetLife is sponsoring or underwriting this Mature Market Institute.

The first thing I'll point to by them is a 'Boomer Map,' a sort of preview of what they see is coming up for Boomers and the rest of us.

It's filled with the kind of hyperbole that I love (e.g., the world is "fraught with dilemmas: the decline of legacy institutions that they have both opposed and worked within, the meteoric advance of technologies..." blah blah blah) and the map has some great looking retro fonts.

Another notable future trend: "more people adopt attitudes that could be called 'transhuman.'" Now that's GOTTA be cool.

AARP's Job Bank

2009-01-06T13:09:10Z

http://jobs.aarp.org/ is the AARP’s ‘Job Search Engine.’ Powered by retirementjobs.com, it purports to “review and certify companies that have age-friendly hiring practices.”

It sounds useful. Does anyone have any feedback on it, know of anyone that’s used it?

Who doesn't have 'age-friendly hiring practices' these days? What is this, the Stone Age?

Community Treasures: Recognizing the Contributions of Older Immigrants and

2008-11-05T16:55:35Z

A recent report by the Temple University Center for Intergenerational Learning analyzes the motivations of immigrant elders engaged in civic roles and highlights the promising practices of agencies who successfully engage them.

Excerpt from the Key Findings: "Trusted ethnic-based organizations and religious institutions, immediate and extended family units, and informal social groups serve as civic connectors that facilitate elder engagement and can also serve as access points for more formal opportunities."

While the material in the 'Key Findings' and 'Implications for Organizations and Community Leaders' sections isn't exactly riveting, it confirms for me the difficulty of contacting and linking up with older immigrants and refugees; this confirms that this group is a tough nut to crack.

RE: AoA statistical profiles

2008-10-27T18:16:44Z

This is really great stuff. The widow/widower breakdown corresponds with "older men being more likely to be married" data -- though not as closely as I would have thought. I wonder what's up with that?

AoA statistical profiles

2008-10-27T18:12:48Z

Doubtless many of you already know about this resource, but just in case.

The federal Administration on Aging (AoA) recently put out some interesting statistical figures about older Americans.

AoA’s figures, some as recent as 2007, cover most every census category one can think: future growth, marital status, racial and ethnic composition, housing, employment, education, etc.

Each section is in html for ease of use, though the entire publication is 17 pages in pdf (http://www.aoa.gov/prof/statistics/profile/2007/2007profile.pdf). It's quick and authoritative.

Factoids:

• The number of Americans aged 45-64 – who will reach 65 over the next two decades – increased by 39% during this decade.
• About 9.4% (3.4 million elderly persons nationally) live below the poverty level;
• Some type of disability (sensory disability, physical disability, or mental disability). was reported by 52% of older persons;
• Older men are much more likely to be married than older women (72% of men, 42% of women);
• Almost half of all older women are widows (43%)
• There were over four times as many widows (8.6 million) as widowers (2.0 million).
• Most older persons have at least one chronic condition and many have multiple conditions. Among the most frequently occurring conditions of elderly in 2004-2005 were:
• hypertension (48%),
• diagnosed arthritis (47%),
• all types of heart disease (29%),
• any cancer (20%),
• diabetes (16%), and
• sinusitis (14%)

Need proof that your population has special needs? Need to show your funders that older adults shouldn't actually depend on 'special revenue streams'? Here's some data to back it up.

8/21 Webinar: Concerns, Strategies, and Issues of Career Women 55 and Older

2008-08-14T15:44:43Z

Alert your patrons and/or attend yourself to this free webinar.

The National Council on Aging has a series of webinars called the Healthy Aging Briefing Series (HABS).

The next one is set for August 21 at 1:30 to 2:20 PM and is called: Project Renewment - Concerns, Strategies, and Issues of Career Women 55 and Older.

Presenters are Helen Dennis and Bernice Bratter, authors of the new bestselling book, Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women (Simon & Schuster/Scribner, 2008). The "Project Renewment" movement is a growing community of women's groups where career women gather and explore the issues, challenges and opportunities they see ahead of them for the next 30 years of their lives.

You will learn:

* what we as aging service professionals should know about this cohort as a potential target group for services, as well as a resource.

* how these considerations and realities will affect us personally as professionals looking forward to our own next chapter.

* strategies that can provide a resource for career women while engaging a new population of Boomers within aging services.

Maybe you already offer programs serving career women, or maybe you are curious about how this might fit into your organization's plans for the future. Either way, give it a shot.

First come, first served; register here; older webinars are archived here and include Civic Engagement: Promising Practices, Depression: Resources for Seniors, and Home Equity Solutions: Use Your Home to Stay at Home.

Age in America

2008-08-07T19:55:46Z

Age in America is Libraries for the Future's newest thing.

It focuses in on Hartford CT, Norfolk VA and Middle Country on Long Island. It's a "two-year project designed to demonstrate the potential for museums and libraries, working together both locally and nationally, to strengthen public understanding of aging as an historical and cultural phenomenon."

They got something like 241 grand from IMLS to "develop public programming among cultural institutions that engage intergenerational audiences in exploring the experience of aging in America from historical, cultural, and artistic perspectives."

I'm looking forward to seeing some action here.

Doug

Re: All-in-one sites

2008-07-14T18:10:47Z

You mean this _isn't_ a top-tier source? Dang, I was all set to check out one of the articles:
"Plastic Surgery Gone Bad - Precautions"

;-)

Re: All-in-one sites

2008-07-14T17:12:53Z

And you have to love a website that refers to the aging of baby boomers as "escalating societal, cultural, economic and medical Armageddon".

Thanks for the good laugh.

Emily

Re: All-in-one sites

2008-07-14T17:08:18Z

Thanks for the splash of reality. Who knew about the allure of gravy boats? Or the pressing need of the over-60 crowd to evaluate chainsaws. As a matter of fact, all of the featured articles link to sales sites. hmmmm.

Re: All-in-one sites

2008-07-14T15:29:26Z

I had intended to write about Go60 http://www.go60.com as a good site that we could reliably point our patrons to. The site is about aging well, and aging wisely and successfully.

However, the more time I spend on it the less I like it and it looks all the world like another typical all-in-one site. Some of the content looks scraped (legal center, social security but hey, Im no developer), some looks like its from professional content creators, and though most of the editorials are on-target (elderly drivers, productive aging), go60 taken as a whole is a mish mash of sometimes unrelated content.

There is some unintentionally funny stuff on there; highlighted items, like Flatware Makes a Great Gift and Gravy Boats Make Really Classy Gifts are, well, pretty darned funny items to be featuring.

Win some lose some.

All-in-one sites

2008-07-01T15:24:26Z

Like jobfinder sites, there are also a bazillion all-in-one sites out there. 2 young 2 retire is a good example of these sites.

It appeals to more than one type of consumer. Folks looking for information can browse the blog ] or the reinventing retirement ] newsletter.

People needing a job-finding guide or tool can use that resource ].

There are bibliographies ] and links to the book ] the author has written.

They offer courses, like What's Next ], too, and there's also links to other people's courses like Starting A Business In Your Fifties And Beyond ].

And they also offer buy-in for like-minded professionals with the Facilitator Certification Training ].

So the site has something of interest for most anyone surfing to it one way or another.

This particular site seems well-intended, as it "advocates an alternative vision of the post-midlife years, providing ideas and advice about meaningful work and community engagement." I can respect that.

Do y'all point users at one of these? Do you think they are useful, or just more crass commercialism?

~ Doug

related site: Tropicjobs.com

2008-06-27T20:23:02Z

Yes, there is such a thing as www.tropicjobs.com.

*Sigh*!

Jobfinder sites

2008-06-26T13:13:06Z

[url http://www.cruisejobfinder.com/ ]cruisejobfinder.com[/url] purports to offer jobs not only for cruise ships, but tour guides, yacht crewing, and beach resorts, too.

Im on the fence about jobfinder services like this one ([url http://www.AlaskaJobFinder.com ]AlaskaJobFinder.com[/url], [url http://www.jobmonkey.com ]jobmonkey.com[/url], [url http://www.campstaff.com ]campstaff.com[/url], [url http://www.oiljobfinder.com ]oiljobfinder.com[/url], [url http://www.thingamajob.com ]thingamajob.com[/url]), but I have to also acknowledge the attraction and apparent ease with which retirees (and others) can find work and a new experience.

As more and more older adults who may be retired from their primary or first careers return to the workplace (for adventure, for something to do, or out of need), many consider jobs or positions that could be considered nontraditional - like cruse ship work.

Like other job finder services, this is a subscription service (5 day Trial for $3.95, 30 days for $12.95, 90 days for $29.95, and one year for $49.95) that culls from what seem to be the major lines in the industry.

There are the usual old school ways for folks to find this work without subscribing to one of these headhunter-esque services, but to be honest thats not really the American Way any more, at least not in my neck of the woods. Its like resume writing; sure, you could write your own and follow examples from the books, or you could just hire it out super cheap for a nice result.

Im interested to know if anyone out here in WJ land has any experiences personal or in helping patrons with services like this one? Or if anyone does in fact link to them off their library sites?