FEATURE Review by Greg Burris and Cora Scott
Springfield Gives 5:
Civic Engagement Program Addresses Five Common Community Challenges
What if you could recent study found that implement one isolation increases the program to address the risk of heart disease by rising trend of social 29 percent and stroke by isolation; provide a wave 32 percent. of talented volunteers Greg Burris, former to nonprofits serving Springfield city citizens in need; and manager, and C ora make your community Scott, Springfield attractive to a generation director of public with time, talent and information and civic treasure to share? That engagement, created would be a win-win-win a civic engagement situation. Communities program called Give 5 that get this right will to address five macrohave a competitive t re nds t hat i mp a c t advantage over the next Retirees and seniors apply talents and passions directly to community needs through every community. It is Springfield's Give 5 program. 20-30 years. a program that matches E a ch d ay i n t he retired (or almost retired) United States, 10,000 b a by b o om e r s w it h baby boomers retire. This growth of retirees is leaving a void strategic volunteer opportunities and addresses all five that is proving very difficult to fill. It is a shortage of talent trends simultaneously. and expertise at a time when the labor market is already tight, It is a way for retirees and seniors to apply their talents and and communities are finding themselves struggling to recruit passions directly to a community’s primary areas of need. and retain talent. But that’s only the half of it. Post retirement, “We call it civic matchmaking,” Burris says. “The program more people are feeling another kind of void – like something provides the journey to find the best individual fit between is missing. It is a sense of loss and disconnectedness – a loss program participant and nonprofit volunteer opportunity.” of the sense of purpose, relevance and identity their career “This is not like the typical volunteer engagement," Scott previously provided. said. "It can’t be.” Social isolation is a serious and growing problem. “The baby boomers are used to rewriting the rules, living According to the U.S. Surgeon General, it is the top health life on their own terms and now they are turning the idea of concern for seniors. According to a recent New York Times retirement on its head,” said Burris, who recently retired from report, a wave of new research suggests social separation is the role of Springfield city manager. “We are a generation that bad for us – Brigham Young University researchers notes has planned and saved for an active retirement – one that is that it causes the equivalent health impact of smoking a pack driven by choice, opportunity and purpose,” he said. “We of cigarettes a day. Individuals with less social connection have an inherent need to feel relevant and we’re going to be have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, extraordinarily bad at watching daytime television all day.” more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones. One www.mocities.com
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