Peace Corps Encore places first volunteers



Peace Corps Encore! focuses on shorter assignments, typically three weeks to three months, so its efforts complement the Corps' efforts rather than create competition, said Peace Corps spokesman Nathan Arnold. The new group is not affiliated with the Peace Corps, but its executive director, Maura Fulton, said other non-profits have been eager to establish partnerships when they realize all her volunteers are Peace Corps veterans. She said the group hopes to place 12 volunteers in assignments in Armenia, Peru, India and Indonesia by year's end.

Peace Corps Encore places first volunteers

Peace Corps vets head back into field
Earliest volunteers get new chances to serve

By Matthew Barakat
Associated Press

Published November 24, 2006

Caption: Susan Ely packs for her trip with Peace Corps Encore!, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006, in her home in Washington. Ely is one of several Peace Corps veterans leaving Friday for a three-week assignment in India through a new Washington-based nonprofit called Peace Corps Encore!, which seeks to place Peace Corps veterans in short-term assignments where they can use their experience from past assignments as well as skills they acquired in their subsequent careers as private citizens. She says she is taking only the one bag of clothes for the month-long trip. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON -- In its 45 years, the Peace Corps has sent more than 180,000 volunteers around the world to help people in developing nations and serve as goodwill ambassadors for the United States.

Now the earliest Peace Corps veterans are heading into retirement or are ready for sabbaticals, and many are eager for another opportunity to serve the way they did as young adults in the 1960s and '70s.

"I've always been more comfortable being a fish out of water," said Susan Ely, who served with the Peace Corps in Costa Rica and Haiti years ago but returned to live in Washington.

Ely, 51, planned to leave Friday for an overseas assignment through Peace Corps Encore!, a non-profit that connects Peace Corps veterans to short-term work that taps their expertise.

Encore! posted Ely, who has been a director at non-profit organizations, to India for a three-week assignment working with the United Way of Mumbai and other charities on projects such as rebuilding a fishing village destroyed in the 2004 tsunami.

She'll focus on building and maintaining donor databases, coordinating volunteers and handling a host of logistical issues.

"I think a lot of the issues that non-profits face are universal," Ely said.

The Peace Corps was established in 1961 after President John Kennedy challenged college students to serve their country in the cause of peace.

It still enjoys a good reputation but is smaller than it once was, with a current force of about 7,800. That is roughly half the force the Peace Corps had in its heyday in the late 1960s.

Ely's assignment was one of the first for Peace Corps Encore!

The new group is not affiliated with the Peace Corps, but its executive director, Maura Fulton, said other non-profits have been eager to establish partnerships when they realize all her volunteers are Peace Corps veterans. She said the group hopes to place 12 volunteers in assignments in Armenia, Peru, India and Indonesia by year's end.

Peace Corps veterans "have experience living in other cultures for extended periods, so they are culturally sensitive," said Kyong Suk Aagesen, a regional director with United Way International, which already has formed a partnership with Fulton's group.

The Peace Corps itself recruits veterans for second tours, and it has a separate Crisis Corps that uses veterans on assignments ranging from three months to a year.

Peace Corps Encore! focuses on shorter assignments, typically three weeks to three months, so its efforts complement the Corps' efforts rather than create competition, said Peace Corps spokesman Nathan Arnold.

Kevin Quigley, president of The National Peace Corps Association, a sort of alumni association for Peace Corps veterans, said several organizations help place Peace Corps veterans overseas, each offering different opportunities to best match volunteers' professional skills and life experiences.

Getting Peace Corps veterans out into the world can only help, Quigley said, especially when America's image in the international community is tarnished.

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Headlines: November, 2006; NGO's; Service

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