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By Donna V.S. Ortega, Guest Contributor on 09/09/2011 @ 10:22 AM

Tags: innovation, financial empowerment, economic inclusion

Letter of Intent Deadline October 3: AARP Foundation Seeks Innovative Ideas on Income

Donna Ortega, AARP Foundation

A recent AARP Public Policy Institute fact sheet highlights the murky employment situation for older Americans. The unemployment rate for persons aged 55 and older dipped to 6.9 percent from 7.0 percent between June and July 2011; while the average duration of unemployment for jobseekers aged 55 and older remained above one year. As of July, nearly 54 percent of older jobseekers had been out of work for 27 or more weeks. Faced with job loss and long-term unemployment, 50+ working families are drawing down savings and increasing debt, and with fewer years between them and retirement (whatever that may look like), they have less time to rebuild these lost assets.

To hasten older Americans’ recovery from the Great Recession, and to reverse the downward spiral facing these vulnerable families, AARP Foundation’s Income Impact Area will be investing over $1 million in nonprofit organizations through its Recession Recovery grants. The purpose of this grant opportunity is to identify and fund innovative and strategic business models that begin to build a national network of employment and income support services that address the specific needs of unemployed workers age 50 and older as they recover from the recession and the effects of long-term unemployment.

AARP Foundation seeks to work in partnership with selected grantees to create a new paradigm for delivering meaningful services to older adult workers and to reduce the length and negative impact of long-term unemployment. While helping people obtain jobs offering good wages and benefits is the most critical element of recovery, given the circumstances noted above, obtaining a job is not enough. While dealing with long-term unemployment and with the potential reduction of unemployment benefits, older workers also need access to income supports and social services necessary to meet their basic needs and protect their families’ financial security. The full RFP is now available on our website at http://www.aarp.org/incomegrants. This is a two-step RFP process: Letters of Intent under this grant program are due on October 3, full proposal submissions are by invitation only and will be due on October 17.

This open call for Recession Recovery proposals (as well as our Sustainable Solutions to Hunger Innovation Grants, also open now) represents a new channel and intervention under AARP Foundation’s new mission: The Foundation is dedicated to serving vulnerable people 50+ by creating solutions that help them secure the essentials and achieve their best life. Through thought leadership, direct services, legal advocacy, grantmaking and raising awareness about the particular needs faced by the low-income 50+, we are working to serve the nearly 20 million older Americans who are at risk of not meeting one or more of their basic needs.

Please review and respond to the RFP, share it with your colleagues and help AARP Foundation find those innovative solutions at the national, regional, state and local levels that can help older Americans regain their economic stability. For more information about our grantmaking work, please visit www.aarp.org/foundationgrants.

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