Civic Ventures and MetLife Foundation have awarded eight $25,000 grants to community colleges, supporting programs aimed at retraining experienced adults for jobs as solar panel installers, bilingual community health workers, and math and science teachers, among others. Winners were chosen from more than 100 applicants for their innovative approaches to matching boomer talent with social purpose jobs that fill specific, local workforce needs-including green jobs.

Launched by Civic Ventures—a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose, and MetLife Foundation, the Community College Encore Career Initiative provides support to community colleges that are updating their own offerings to help people over 50 prepare for encore careers, which combine continued income with personal meaning and social impact. In 2008, the Encore Career Survey by MetLife Foundation and Civic Ventures, found that half of those surveyed between the ages of 44 and 70 said they are interested in pursuing an encore career.

"Even in good economic times, it's not easy to get from the end of a midlife career to the beginning of an encore career," said Marc Freedman, CEO and founder of Civic Ventures and author of "Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life." "In these tough times, community colleges are stepping up to provide a vital bridge to older job seekers who want work that means something to them—and matters to the world."

The $25,000 Community College Encore Career Grants go to