Tricky Transition

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Private-foundation money is helping by underwriting resource centers and gathering places in libraries, community colleges and municipal buildings. In Tempe, Ariz., the public library is adding space for a café and retirement-planning workshops, while community colleges in nearby Mesa and Scottsdale are designing programs to keep older adults connected and involved in their communities. The town of Chandler, Ariz., has just launched a Boomerang program, whose website, www.myboomerang.org provides links to local resources on lifelong learning, volunteering, second careers and wellness. "In our focus groups, boomers don't see retirement as freedom from work but as freedom to choose what's next," says Linda Meissner, coordinator of the program.

In Ocala, Fla., trained volunteers at Central Florida Community College coach 55-plus adults on creating a road map for the rest of their lives. The coaches, most of whom are retirees, provide three no-cost one-on-one sessions in the Pathways to Living, Learning and Serving program www.pathwaysmarion.com)

Nearly 1,400 women, most of them in New York City, have joined the Transition Network www.thetransitionnetwork.org) A nonprofit, it was set up five years ago by two Manhattan executive women who were determined to make use of their skills, talents and interests after retirement. In addition to monthly meetings, special events and nontraditional volunteer projects, the venture fosters peer groups of eight to 10 women who meet in private homes to discuss financial management, health and individual transitions. Chapters are being formed in Chicago and Washington.

Peer groups can be a safe and supportive place to discuss retirement issues that are taboo in the workplace, says Ronald J. Manheimer, director of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement in Asheville, which puts on weekend workshops www.unca.edu/ncccr) "People find it awkward to raise the subject [at work]. They tell us, 'I'd be dead meat. I'd no longer be seen as part of the team, and my co-workers would look at me in a different way.'"

Scott Schillen of Newton, Mass., appreciates the insights and curiosity of the eight or so like-minded souls he meets with each month at the public library. "I find a lot of my contemporaries are becoming stale and content with the status quo--their eyes don't light up when you talk about what's next," observes Schillen, 58, who recently earned a real estate license after 35 years in higher education and music administration.

Michael Salkind, 67, of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, had retired as CEO of the Ohio Aerospace Institute when he signed up for the Fairhill Center's What's Next! program. Salkind says the classes on learning, wellness, spirituality, creativity and life planning were "a good time to stop and take inventory of life values and expectations and think through a plan." His original intention was to continue to work on improving Cleveland's primary education, a longtime interest, but he was drawn back into business as a consultant. Now he finds his day planner crammed with breakfast meetings and lunches. But he pencils in time for volunteering, visits to far-flung grandchildren and a regular boys' night out with chums.