Organization gives Peace Corps vets new opportunities to serve overseas

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.

The earliest Peace Corps veterans are heading into retirement or ready for sabbaticals, and many are anxious for another opportunity to serve the way they did as passionate young adults in the 1960s and 1970s.

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

Ely, now 51, was to leave today for a new overseas assignment through Peace Corps Encore!, a newly established not-for-profit that connects Peace Corps veterans to short-term assignments that tap their expertise.

The group posted Ely, who has been a director at not-for-profit organizations, to India for a three-week assignment working with the United Way of Mumbai and other charitable groups, working on projects such as rebuild a fishing village destroyed in the 2004 tsunami.

She'll be working on what is billed in the not-for-profit community as capacity building -- building and maintaining donor databases, coordinating volunteers and handling a host of logistical issues peculiar to the world of not-for-profit groups.

"I think a lot of the issues that nonprofits face are universal," Ely said. "Any nonprofit organization should be appreciative of its donors and volunteers, and you want the structure of the organization to reflect those values."

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

The organization still enjoys a good reputation, but it isn't as large as it once was. It has grown in recent years to a current force of about 7,800, about half it was in its heyday in the late 1960s.

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

Peace Corps Encore! is not affiliated with the Peace Corps itself, but its executive director, Maura Fulton, said other nonprofit groups have been eager to establish partnerships when they realize all her volunteers are Peace Corps veterans.

"I was humbled by how quickly people recognized the value that Peace Corps veterans would bring," said Fulton, who just returned from India and Bangladesh seeking partnerships with other not-for-profits.

She said the group hopes to place 12 volunteers in assignments in Armenia, Peru, India and Indonesia by the end of the year.

Peace Corps veterans "have experience living in other cultures for extended periods of time, so they are culturally sensitive," said Kyong Suk Aagesen, a regional director with United Way International, which has already 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 actually complement the Peace 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 there are several organizations that help place Peace Corps veterans overseas, each offering different opportunities to best match volunteers' professional skills and life experiences.

Those groups tap into a unique pool of talent -- people who might not be able to commit two years overseas again with the Peace Corps but still can make vital contributions around the world, he said.

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