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Boomers

Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement

Research Report

Harvard School of Public Health

June 2004


In seven years, the oldest of the baby boomers will turn 65, and they can expect to live, on average, to 83. Many will continue into their 90s. These extra years, unique in human history, can be said to constitute a new stage of life. Boomers have the potential to become a social resource of immense proportions by actively participating in their communities. But will they participate? Compared with their parents' generation—the so-called "Greatest Generation"—boomers have done less by every measure of civic engagement, including rates of voting and joining community groups. Given this reality, this report examines the following questions:

  • Can a national effort succeed in mobilizing large numbers of boomers to contribute their time, skills, and experience to address community problems?

  • If boomers were to respond in large numbers, would civic organizations of various kinds be prepared to receive them?

  • What roles can the news media, the advertising industry, and Hollywood play in helping society to redefine the meaning and purpose of the older years?

The main message is that an opportunity exists now to help boomers create a social legacy of profound importance.

The report is from the Harvard School of Public Health–MetLife Foundation Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement. AARP participated in a September working conference at Harvard to review current research and thinking on how the boomers will approach and change the face of volunteerism as they approach retirement, and to map out potential methods for harnessing this potentially large, new civic resource. For this conference, Robert H. Prisuta of AARP Knowledge Management produced a background paper entitled Enhancing Volunteerism Among Aging Baby Boomers, which was used as a starting point for the discussion and appears within Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement.