Serving the community since 1926
WEEK OF JULY 6, 2023
VOLUME 96 | ISSUE 33
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Retiring workers find new life through CU Denver program
Law was unconstitutional, and legislators were warned BY JESSE PAUL AND ELLIOTT WENZLER THE COLORADO SUN
The program is a priority for school leaders who want to serve older adults because they want the school to be “a university for life,” said Anne Button, the program’s founding director. Here and nationally, schools also have looked for new ways to bring in students. Some schools have faced declining enrollment since the pandemic, and lower birth rates will mean fewer college-age students to
When a group of Colorado lawmakers in 2020 sought to end the state’s statute of limitations for lawsuits in child sex assault cases, some victims and victims’ advocates wanted them to try to go even further. Their request was that Colorado give victims of abuse for whom the statute of limitations had expired a window to sue not only their abusers, but also organizations that shielded the perpetrators or negligently allowed the abuse to continue. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Legal Services, which offers state lawmakers legal advice, said such a window would violate the state’s constitution, which prohibits the General Assembly from reviving a claim for which the statute of limitations has run out. It turns out that opinion held merit. The Colorado Supreme Court last week struck down the part of Senate Bill 88, a law passed by the legislature in 2021, giving victims of child sex abuse dating back to the 1960s a three-year window starting on Jan. 1, 2022, to file lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions or organizations that failed to stop the abuse. The high court’s decision was unanimous. There were many concerns about
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Todd Matuszewicz, 60, a neon sign creator, poses in front of a neon sign he restored. Matuszewicz participated in the University of COURTESY OF TODD MATUSZEWICZ Colorado Denver’s Change Makers program to help him figure out what he wants to do when he retires. BY JASON GONZALES CHALKBEAT COLORADO
Retirement can be about more than pickleball and world travel. For some retirees, winding down a career could mean transitioning to other work or dedicating part of their time to passion projects, said Todd Matuszewicz, 60, who plans to retire soon. Figuring out which is next, however, is the hard part. “After working for 35 years, at the end of it, there’s no exit strategy,”
said Matuszewicz, a neon sign maker and former educator. “That’s not taught as part of education. They say here’s chemistry, here’s your history, but there was no one saying: We’re going to help you on the back side.” But Matuszewicz found help through the University of ColoradoDenver’s Change Makers program. The pilot program, which started this year, joins a growing list of programs nationwide that are helping older adults prepare for how they want to spend the next phase of their lives.
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Landmark 20th
July 28, 29 & 30
Evergreen Jazz Festival Big Talent! Small Venues! Great Setting!
Dancers Welcome!
Free Parking!
EvergreenJazz.org 303-697-5467