RESOURCES

See Coming of Age’s resource listings below. Feel free to contact us at info@comingofage.org with resource recommendations and suggested updates to the list.​ The links featured on this page open to outside websites.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & IMPROVEMENT

Blue Zones
Blue Zones is dedicated to creating healthy communities across the United States. Its resources are based on research of blue zones, regions of the world where longevity is greater based on the lifestyles of their inhabitants.

Coming of Age
A national initiative that is convening communities of individuals 50 and older who live with passion and purpose. It also builds the capacity of organizations to optimally utilize the skills, passions, and interests of people 50+.

CoGenerate
CoGenerate (formerly Encore) is building an intergenerational movement, envisioning a world where older and younger people join forces to solve problems, bridge divides and co-create the future.

Explore Your Future
Explore Your Future, a Coming of Age program gives adults aged 50+ the tools they need to plan life in their encore years. It helps participants assess their gifts and to set and achieve goals.

Fierce With Age
Featuring good content about using gadgets (think blenders for smoothies), technology and devices.

Post-Career Planning Guide [opens a pdf document]
If you are within a few years of retirement or have already retired, you’ll find the Post-Career Planning guide helpful. It provides assessments, questions, and additional reading that will help you prepare to live your best post-career life. From BoomerBestU.

Ted Talks
Find the best talks and performances from TED conferences, TEDx and partner events.

LIFELONG LEARNING

All About Cookies
Advice for keeping safe online and on social media.

Center for Learning and Living
Free sessions year-round. Bi-monthly Wednesdays, Summer 2022 offerings include Politics 2022, Recent Supreme Court Decisions, and The Pleasures Within Poems About Summer. No registration; click the Zoom link on the day.

Coursera
Take free online classes from 80+ top universities and organizations.

Generations on Line
This nonprofit works to reduce isolation and provides fast, free, digital resources for older adults nationwide, including tutorials for computers, tablets and smartphones.

GetSetup.io
GetSetUp, a Coming of Age partner, offers courses from cooking to brain health to developing new skills for the workforce and more. Subscribe to our newsletter, which provides a code to take the courses for free.

Open Culture
A list of 750 online courses FREE

Road Scholar
Road Scholar, leader in educational travel since 1975, offers 6,500 educational tours in US and 150 countries.

Senior Planet
Senior Planet is the first tech-themed resource for people over 60 living and aging well—with attitude.

VOLUNTEERING

AARP’s Create the Good
Create The Good connects you with volunteer opportunities to share your life, tips and information.

PSS (New York City)
For those interested in impacting the lives of others,  PSS, an older adult services nonprofit that manages Coming of Age, seeks volunteers to help provide services, information, and support. 

Volunteer Match
Volunteer Match makes it easier for good people and good causes to connect. It offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT & ADVOCACY

AARP
News about actions you can take to support older adults in areas such as housing, health, COVID, inflation and healthy aging.

Climate Voice
Climate Voice leverages the power of influence from climate-positive companies and schools to win crucial policy battles.

Elders Climate Action
Grandparents, great aunts and great uncles who work to inform, inspire, and engage others to take action on the climate crisis, and actively support the youth movements springing up in the U.S. and throughout the world.

EngAGE
Connecting generations, West Coast-based EngAGE provides high quality arts, wellness, and lifelong learning programs to residents of all ages in affordable housing communities for free throughout California and Oregon.

Gray is Green
Gray Is Green is the leading environmental education, advocacy, and action organization for older adults.

Gray Panthers NYC
The intergenerational education and advocacy organization dedicated to achieving social and economic justice and peace for all people in New York State.  Sign up to receive timely action alerts on legislative activities impacting the issues you care about.

Justice in Aging
The National Center on Law and Elder Rights (NCLER) is a national legal resource center for professionals in legal services and the aging and disability networks, focused on the legal rights of older adults.

National Center to Reframe Aging
The National Center to Reframe Aging works to end ageism by advancing an equitable and complete story about aging in America. The center provides proven communication strategies and tools and is building a community of local organizations to effectively frame aging issues.

This Chair Rocks
Ashton Applewhite’s Q&A blog addressing ageism.  Featuring her Ted Talk, books and a link to an anti-ageism clearing house.

Th!rd Act
Third Act is building a community of experienced Americans over 60 determined to change the world for the better, using their life experience, skills and resources to build a better tomorrow.

 

EMPLOYMENT

DiversityWorking
DiversityWorking matches “mature workers” to jobs. Active since 2000, it is the largest diversity job board online whose services match age-diversity-minded employers with professional talent.

GoFreelance
A resource for anyone who wants to work independently or remotely, this site provides advice for marketing your freelance services, finding work and working remotely.

Green Dream Jobs
A resource for people who would rather put their business skills to work to restore the environment. All categories are for green and socially responsible jobs. LISTINGS are in the right-hand, lower column. 

Idealist
Easily searchable job and volunteer opportunities in the public selector and resources.  

Indeed
Click here to find millions of jobs from thousands of company web sites, job boards and newspapers.

Jobscoop.org (Southern California)
In Southern California, The Center for Nonprofit Management’s JobScoop connects job seekers to employers to strengthen the nonprofit sector in Southern California.

LinkedIn
Manage your professional identity. Build and engage with your professional network.

Mashable
Great resource for information about how to maximize LinkedIn and other online resources.

Monster
With 25 years of experience in the field, Monster is a global leader in connecting people and jobs. The site also offers career advice and resources.

Nifty 50s
Information, news, resources and tips for the older job seeker.

Resume Builder
Information about employment programs and services for older adults, such as Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP), tips for re-entering the workforce and more.

SELF-EXPRESSION

Time Goes By
Elder blogs founded by a retired CBS news journalist. (Last post is December 2020).

Word Press
DIY blogging platform

PURPOSEFUL AGING

Center for Practical Bioethics
Free information and free templates to create your own Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare Decisions, Healthcare Treatment Directive, and Caring Conversations workbook. Email: center@practicalbioethics.org

Coming of Age Newsletter
Coming of Age’s e-newsletter sharing the latest news and resources on positive and purposeful aging.

Creative Aging Resource
A place to access and share resources that highlight the benefits of arts education for older adults.

Happify
A positive, uplifting, daily e-newsletter. It can help conquer negative thoughts, gain confidence, boost optimism, improve relationships, boost energy and reduce stress.

Human Values in Aging Newsletter
Edited by Harry R. Moody. Covers creativity, spirituality, lifelong learning, and humanistic gerontology. For a sample copy or a subscription, send a message to hrmoody@yahoo.com .

Next Avenue
Next Avenue is a major PBS system website designed to reach America’s booming 50+ population as they plan for and literally define a new life stage.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Practical Help to Successfully Navigate to and Within the Third Age

Bridges, William. Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes. Da Capo Press, 2004.

Franco, Carol, and Kent Lineback. The Legacy Guide: Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of your Life. JP Tarcher, 2007.

Leider, Richard, and David A. Shapiro. Something to Live for: Finding Your Way in the Second Half of Life. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2008.

Leipzig, Rosanne. M.D., Ph.D. Honest Aging : An Insider’s Guide to the Second Half of Life. John Hopkins University Press, 2023

Long, Priscilla. Dancing with the Muse in Old Age. Epicenter/Coffeetown Press, 2022.

Usrey, Paula Marie. Refusing to Be Invisible: Life Planning Empowerment Strategies for Women 50+. Independently published, 2022.

Zelinski, Ernie J. How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won’t Get from Your Financial Advisor. Visions International Publishing, 2004.

Thinking About Work

Everett, Melissa. Making a Living While Making a Difference: Conscious Careers for an Era of Interdependence. New Society Pub, 2007.

Moore, Thomas. A Life at Work: The Joy of Discovering What You Were Born to Do. Broadway, 2009.

Sadler, William, and James Krefft. Changing Course: Navigating Life After Fifty. Center for Third Age Leadership Press, 2007.

Successful Aging/Aging Process

Arrien, Angeles. The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom. Sounds True, Inc., 2007.

Cohen, Gene D., M.D., Ph.D.:

  • The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life. Harper Paperbacks, 2001.
  • The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain. Basic Books, 2006.

Feiler, Bruce. Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change At Any Age. Penguin Books, 2021.

Social Issues and Trends

Applewhite, Ashton. This Chair Rocks: A Manifest Against Ageism. Celadon Books, 2020.

Bornstein, David. How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas. Oxford University Press, USA, 2007.

Gendron, Tracey, Ph.D. Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias & How to End It.
Steerforth Press, 2022.

Thomas, William H., M.D. What are Old People For?: How Elders Will Save the World.
Vanderwyk & Burnham, 2007.