Monday, October 29, 2012

Happy birthday ReServe!

Written by Kaan Ocbe, ReServe Cultivation Coordinator

This October marks the one year anniversary of ReServe Miami, a program connects continuing professionals age 55+ with nonprofits across the city to help them reinvest a career’s worth of skills into building capacity within our community. 

It has been an exhilarating first year. ReServe Miami, hosted by Catalyst Miami, has been successful in placing over 50 continuing professionals with local organizations, more than doubling the one-year goal of 25 placements. Some of the partner organizations include March of Dimes, Florida International University and the Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce.

The first ReServe program began in New York in 2005 and has since spread to many other cities across the U.S. ReServists have a wealth of experience that can be put to use by the nonprofits in our communities, yet many times professionals over 55 are not hired simply because of their age. ReServe provides nonprofits with highly skilled, older individuals at a subsidized rate so that they can help serve their community by working with organizations that are in many cases stretched very thin. In this way, ReServe helps to serve the dual purpose of providing opportunities to its ReServists and helping to build capacity within our community organizations.

ReServists end up becoming central actors in the operations of their partner organization and their very presence fosters the development of a vibrant, multi-generational work environment.

The coming year is set to be just as exciting as the last. Currently the ReServe team is preparing for its "Latin Launch," which will begin ReServe Miami’s entrance into the Spanish speaking nonprofit community, opening up new opportunities for ReServists who speak Spanish as their primary language.

If you or anyone you know is interested in becoming a ReServist, please be sure to sign up for a First Impressions meeting by visiting www.reserveinc.org

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations to our founding mothers, Debi Hoffman and Ann Machado, and our fearless leader, director Dacia Steiner leading a marvelous team. We did it!

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