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New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services, New England
Goodbye, Hello: A Generation of Executives Reflects on Retirement and the Future of Services for Children and Youth
Since 2000, New England Network (NEN) has become increasingly concerned about the change of leadership that will affect the youth services field over the next decade. Many of New England's youth service agencies, which were founded and came of age in the 1970's and 1980's, will lose their founders and executive directors over the next five years, as the nation's 77 million baby boomers begin to retire.
A 2003 study conducted by Nonprofit Quarterly reported that 15 to 35 percent of nonprofit executives plan to leave their jobs within two years and 61 to 78 percent plan to leave within five years. And who will replace them? It's hard to say.
Only 38 million Gen-Xers are coming along behind them, far too few to fill the executive ranks. The next generation after that, the Gen-Yers, will still be too young and inexperienced to assume leadership positions. This is worth worrying about because the delivery of youth services has become increasingly complex over the past ten years, because government and private foundation funding is becoming more scarce, and because child- and youth-service agencies provide our young people with a wide range of critical, life-saving services including shelter, emergency intervention and prevention services, life skills education, and employment programs.
The loss of key leaders increases the challenge of effectively developing and delivering these services to young people across our region.
Goodbye Hello (pdf)