Second Journey is among a small number

That vision sees the Longevity Revolution — the dividend of extra years which in this past century has extended life expectancy by 30-plus years — not as a demographic time bomb threatening the social safety net, but as an unprecedented historic opportunity:

• an opportunity to open new avenues for individual growth and spiritual deepening — so that our longer lives become more meaningful lives;
• an opportunity to birth a renewed ethic of service and mentoring in later life; and
• an opportunity to encourage the growth of new communities — and new models OF community — to support living, learning, and social change for the 21st century.

Captured in shorthand… Mindfulness, Service, and Community in the Second Half of Life.

Since our first VISIONING COUNCIL, held in October 2003 at Wildacres (left) on the beautiful Blue Ridge in western North Carolina, our energies have focused on the third “opportunity.” We recognize that existing institutions — from senior centers to Sun City — are based on assumptions about “the elderly” that do not apply to the generation of Baby Boomers now poised to redefine later life. 

Our culture is entering a fertile period of social experimentation. The current conventional  “continuum of care” — which includes catered and assisted-living facilities and nursing homes, late life options you will NOT find covered in the pages of this Guide — is being replaced by promising new forms, promising innovative solutions to the challenge of Creating Community in Later Life.  Sparking, then incubating, such innovation has been the goal of our regional Visioning Councils — “democratic think tanks” that have now been conducted in venues across the country.

This Resource Guide^© is the product of this three-year effort. Portions of the Guide are incomplete; two pages and the final section are still in development. But more fundamentally ...the entire document is a work in progress.

On each page, above the listing of “Further Reading & Useful Links,” you will find a link inviting YOU to help with the work by suggesting a relevant article, book, or link to an organization or agency. Moreover, a number of pages recognize a Contributing Editor. We hope to recruit others to play a similar role for the remaining pages; their job will be to refresh the narrative copy on the page once or twice a year and select from the suggested links submitted by readers.

Finally, each page invites YOU to become a colleague in this important work of social transformation by making a financial contribution to Second Journey.

Your generous support is appreciated!