Encore Impact
After a work career gaining valuable experience, skills, and connections, would you like to do something significant to make the world better, but don’t know how to go about realizing your vision?
Are you frustrated that the reality of younger generations is fraught with danger, inequality, a hurting planet, racism, sexism, and so much more– and you feel pulled to do something about it now that you have accumulated so many skills and insights?
Are you feeling you could walk further on your spiritual journey—through reading, contemplation, meditation, through discerning your personal values?
Do you feel your faith calling you to work toward social justice, but you’re not sure where or how to begin?
Many older adults are asking themselves these questions as they approach the so-called “retirement” stage of life. Some know more about what they don’t want than what they do want to do. Others are fearful of making life changes that could turn out poorly if they are not well considered.
And still, others have a gnawing sense they haven’t fulfilled the dreams they harbor inside and that they want to do something more for their family, their friends, and their community. They can’t get away from the profound realization that the world needs more fairness, more kindness, more social justice. But how do you think about this moment of transition in your life? How do you plan for a profoundly different future, one that you laid the foundation for during your life so far?
Encore Impact is for you!
Ready to go? Click here to apply! *
Tell your friends! Download a shareable PDF flyer.
*If you would like to apply offline, you can download this Encore Impact Application form. If you have any questions regarding signing up, email Chelsea at chelsea@kaleo.center or call 651-255-6150.
What does Encore Impact include?
Encore Impact engages a diverse group of 55+ adults in a four-month program of discernment, dialogue, and experience with what an “encore” chapter of productive, social-purpose focused adulthood might look like. The group will meet evenings for nine, three-hour sessions on Tuesdays every two weeks to work through critical questions and develop individual plans for their Encore chapter.
Encore Impact runs seminar style to maximize participant engagement. Assigned readings and exercises are designed to provoke engagement, discernment, self-reflection, and contemplation. Readings include multiple spiritual selections, life transition (Transitions: Making Sense of Life’s Changes as well as practical material (e.g. The Encore Career Handbook). Extensive time is dedicated to guided group discussions.
A key outcome of your time at Encore Impact is the development of an individual experiential plan to learn more about an Encore stage work/activity. To help with this planning, Encore Impact includes an expectation of field experiences or mentoring connection to provide a hands-on look at how to bring one’s values and faith to work in a real life situation.
Fall 2018 Course beginning soon!
- The application deadline for the fall 2018 course is September 1, 2018.
- Sessions meet at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (3000 5th St. NW, New Brighton) during the fall semester.
- Participants outside of the Twin Cities can video conference into the class sessions using Zoom.
- Classes meet from 6-9 PM on Tuesdays every two weeks beginning September 18 and ending on December 11, 2018.
- Each cohort is limited to fifteen participants.
- The cost of the full four-month Encore Impact course is $1,500. (Limited discounts available for low-income participants.)
- Potential participants must submit an application prior to acceptance into the cohort.
- There is a $25 application fee that must be paid when you submit your application.
- Participants should expect to purchase four books for use during the class, totaling around $50.
Interested? Click here to apply!*
*If you would like to apply offline, you can download this Encore Impact Application form. If you have any questions regarding signing up, email Chelsea at chelsea@kaleo.center or call 651-255-6150.
Kaleo Center thanks the Encore Transition program at Union Theological Seminary and Program Director Ruth Wooden for use of her syllabus. We are deeply indebted to Ruth and Union for their generousity and guidance in the development of Encore Impact.
About the facilitators:
The program is directed by Steve Newcom, United Faculty, Program Director – Social Transformation and Founding Director – Kaleo Center for Faith, Justice and Social Transformation. In 2008 Newcom received an Archibald Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship to explore the intersection of theological education and social justice which led to the creation of the Kaleo Center in 2010. Prior to that Newcom served as Executive Director of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice for eighteen years and Program Director at the Greater Mpls. Council of Churches for seven. At 64+ Steve is a ‘fellow traveler’ in his own encore career.
The Rev. Karen Hutt is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, a credentialed Clinical Pastoral Educator, and a Board Certified Chaplain. She was a co-founder and co-pastor of Church of the Open Door, a dual-affiliated United Church of Christ/Unitarian Universalist congregation that served Chicago’s Black LGBTQ population from 1997-2005. Rev. Hutt went on to serve as a chaplain and Clinical Pastoral Educator in several large hospital systems in both Chicago and Minneapolis. She is widely regarded as one of the most innovative educators in the Clinical Pastoral Education field, and her work has been published in the Journal for Reflective Practice and Supervision. From 2005-2014, she also served as the part-time Executive Director of Companions Journeying Together, Inc., an interfaith prison ministry that worked with clients in prisons and jails around the state of Illinois. She is the editor of The Call to Care: Essays by Unitarian Universalist Chaplains (Skinner House Books, 2016).
Rev. Hutt lives in Minneapolis with her partner, the Rev. Ashley Horan, and their two children—Zi (17) and Aspen (3).
About United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities:
When you come to United, you join a community that is intentionally open, socially aware, and theologically adventurous. Our passion is equipping leaders to make real, lasting change in the world–whether your vocation is in faith leadership, non-profit leadership, academia, the arts, activism, or social entrepreneurship.
Founded as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United has been on the cutting edge of progressive theological thought leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to train leaders who dismantle systems of oppression, explore multifaith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.
Participants in the Encore program at United will become valuable members of this vibrant, growing community.
Questions? Contact Steve at steve@kaleo.center or call 651-255-6139.