Older Volunteers

This edition of Research to Practice looks again at research into volunteering by older people. Globally it seems we are witnessing an increased desire to get older people involved in voluntary and community organizations. This may be for a number of reasons − from recognition of the intrinsic worth of involvement in democratic societies to recognition of health benefits gained from participation and the goal of balancing work and care in aging populations. The result, however, is that older people’s involvement is a popular area for study.

This Research to Practice looks at a study of older volunteers and their volunteering profile. It is a study which uses panel data (that is, it tracks the same people over a period of time) between 1996 and 2004. The incorporation of panel data is quite useful, because so often research is a ‘snapshot’ at a specific time. This study tracks people between the ages of 55 to 65 in 1996, and then asks them about their volunteering practices every two years up to 2004. As you will see, the results tell us something about who volunteers, and something about why some people do not. 

Anticipating the huge number of Baby Boomers entering retirement in the next two decades, RSVP of North Central Iowa leaders decided to focus their attention on how to engage that cohort in volunteer service.  Attracting even a small percentage of the area’s approximately 22,000 Baby Boomers into volunteerism could yield enormous dividends for the citizens in the region. In this feature story for e-Volunteerism, RSVP Director Elaine Hanson and consultant Elizabeth Weinstein reveal how the organization responded to the “call to action” – a move that resulted in series of activities and research projects aimed at capturing the hearts and talents of potential Baby Boomer volunteers.

Yad Sarah is an Israeli nationwide network of volunteers aiding needy, disabled and elderly people. The organization relies on volunteers and provides many essential services which are not covered by the government, such as lending medical equipment, day rehabilitation centers, transportation for the disabled and geriatric dental services.  Through Yad Sarah, professional dentists in Jerusalem volunteer to serve the underprivileged elderly, an act of volunteering that expresses social solidarity and willingness to contribute.

Avraham Zini and Harold D. Sgan-Cohen, two leading dental experts in Jerusalem, decided to explore ways to improve the satisfaction among volunteer dentists – for the benefit of the health care providers and the community recipients. Towards this goal, they surveyed 67 dentists currently volunteering on a regular basis at the Yad Sarah geriatric dental clinic in Jerusalem.  In this feature story, e-Volunteerism presents the results of Zini and Sgan-Cohen’s research, outlining the main reasons that lead Israeli dentists to volunteer. Their article reviews the aspects of dental volunteering efforts that fulfilled expectations, and which areas proved less than satisfactory. This important research provides a unique look inside a volunteer experience that is rarely made available to the public.  

As the populations of most developed countries show an increasing
proportion of older people, debates have started about how an aging
population will be cared for.  For volunteering, this often means how
volunteers will be engaged to help care for the elderly.  But this assumption ignores two vital facts: one, that volunteering can help keep older people healthy; and two, that older people are active and a potential  source of more volunteers.

This report focuses on research designed to better understand volunteering among older people. It looks at the conditions under which older people become volunteers, their capacity to remain volunteers as they age, and the constraints that may cause them to restrict their volunteering. The report draws out implications for volunteer-involving organisations and policy makers.

This collaborative research project by Susan Baines, Mabel Lie, and Jane Wheelock was produced in 2006 as a collaborative research project by Age Concern Newcastle and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, the first woman high school principal in the state of California, knew that retired teachers were living on incredibly small pensions, often without any health insurance. In 1947, she founded the National Retired Teachers Association (NRTA).   But it wasn’t until 1956, after approaching more than 30 companies to offer health insurance to retired teachers, that she found one willing to take a chance on NRTA members.  The organization then expanded its membership to all retirees and became AARP in 1958.

Dr. Andrus was a remarkable volunteer.  Read her story.

Do we need another study on volunteer motives? Michael Callow’s work (published in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing) argues that we do and that there is value in looking at volunteering among retirees. Too often, says Callow, we categorise types of volunteers into broad groups, with ‘older volunteers’ put into a category that merely allows them to be contrasted with other groups. This, however, leads to assumptions that all older volunteers come with the same motives and aspirations for their involvement.

While I think that Callow may not have considered all the many and varied studies into older peoples’ participation, there is some truth in what he says. As a result, this piece of research is an interesting contribution to thinking, especially as it comes from the perspective of an assistant professor of marketing, not from someone who focuses exclusively on volunteers.

The current UK government has often re-iterated that its policy is 'evidence led'. Whether this happens in practice is for others to decide, but a useful spin-off is that research has become more prevalent in areas interesting government.

This Research into Practice focuses on a report reviewing how volunteer-involving organisations attract and involve older volunteers. Between 1999 and 2003, the UK Home Office spread £1.5 million between 26 projects with the aim of looking at how to involve more older people in volunteering.

The report is a summation of the experiences of those projects, highlighting some well-trodden issues: what volunteers have to offer, what volunteers want and the barriers that need to be overcome to involve more older people. It also tries to distil lessons that are transferable.

Earlier this year, Elisha Evans and Joe Saxton of 'NFP Synergy' in the United Kingdom, released a report titled 'Five key trends and their impact on the voluntary sector'. The report looked at five demographic trends and explored their likely impact on the voluntary sector.

The five trends the report examined were:

• The ageing population
• The changing structure of families
• Diversification of households
• Educational levels
• Changes to financial independence

The report offers many valuable insights into possible future trends affecting volunteering, a topic in which e-Volunteerism is clearly interested.

Rather than simply present you with the NFP Synergy document, we decided to invite several international leaders in volunteerism to review the report and add their thoughts, comments and opinions to those expressed in the report.

This Research to Practice article examines how Five Key Trends and Their Impact on the Voluntary Sector (a feature article in this issue) can be a model for interpreting data in a practical, put-it-to-use way.

The "Five Key Trends..." article is itself an example of translating research into material useful to practitioners.  The article includes the original report by Elisha Evans and Joe Saxton, along with special comments on the implications for volunteering by an international panel of responders. 

Here, new Research-to-Practice feature editor Steven Howlett (UK) adds his perspective on how "trends" literature can be applied.