Older Volunteers A Guide to Research and

This review of research on recruiting, retaining and working with older volunteers provides a synthesis of 'best practices' based on case studies of exemplary volunteer programmes. The authors examine the range of volunteer roles and organizations, the motivation behind volunteering, techniques of recruiting and keeping older volunteers, as well as managerial issues such as developing training programmes.

Acknowledgments

ix

About This Book

xiii

Part I: Background

Making Miracles

3

(10)

The Age Revolution

5

(1)

Productive Aging

6

(2)

Opportunities for Older Volunteers

8

(1)

Why Older People ``Should'' Volunteer

9

(4)

Who Volunteers?

13

(15)

What Is a Volunteer?

13

(2)

How Many Volunteer?

15

(3)

Who Volunteers: A Demographic Profile

18

(7)

Who Volunteers for What?

25

(3)

Summary of Findings

26

(1)

Summary of Key Themes

26

(2)

Politics to Bake Sales: Types of Volunteering

28

(14)

A Typology of Volunteer Roles

30

(3)

Types of Volunteer Programs

33

(6)

Service Exchange Programs

39

(3)

Summary of Key Themes

40

(2)

Why Volunteer?

42

(23)

What Are the Motivations?

43

(5)

The Motivations of Older Volunteers

48

(3)

The Mystery of Motivations

51

(1)

People Who Help

52

(3)

The Social Context of Helping

55

(4)

Religion and Volunteering

59

(6)

Summary of Key Themes

61

(4)

Part II: Working With Older Volunteers

Recruiting Older Volunteers

65

(27)

Older Volunteers

66

(3)

How Important Is Personal Recruitment?

69

(3)

Some Caveats About Word-of-Mouth Recruitment

72

(1)

Running a Recruitment Campaign

73

(5)

Whom to Recruit

78

(2)

Community Ties

80

(3)

Recruitment for ``Strong Helping'' Situations

83

(4)

Problems in Recruiting Older Volunteers

87

(5)

Summary of Key Themes

90

(2)

Keeping Volunteers

92

(28)

How Much Turnover?

93

(4)

Picking the Right People

97

(4)

Making a Match

101

(3)

Why Do Volunteers Stay?

104

(5)

Why Do They Leave? How Volunteering Changes the Volunteer

109

(4)

The Problem of Burnout

113

(7)

Summary of Key Themes

119

(1)

Older Volunteers as Workers

120

(21)

The Importance of Quality

121

(2)

Like a Family

123

(4)

How to Motivate Volunteer Workers and Improve Quality

127

(5)

How Much Do Volunteers Cost?

132

(1)

Integrating Volunteers With Paid Staff

133

(2)

Volunteer Programs Require Adequate Funding

135

(6)

Summary of Key Themes

137

(4)

Part III: Special Topics

Ethics and Other Thorny Issues

141

(23)

The Ethic of Community Responsibility

142

(1)

Ethical Issues for Individual Volunteers

143

(1)

Ethical Issues for Volunteer Organizations

143

(1)

Older Volunteers, Public Policies, and Ethical Dilemmas

144

(1)

Why Volunteers?

145

(4)

Antivolunteerism and Other ``Isms''

149

(3)

When Volunteers Replace Paid Staff

152

(3)

``Exploitation'' as an Issue for Older Volunteers

155

(1)

Ethics for Volunteers

156

(3)

Volunteers as a Liability

159

(5)

Summary of Key Themes

162

(2)

Minority Elders as Volunteers

164

(20)

Defining Minority Status

165

(1)

The Meaning of Volunteering in Minority Communities

166

(2)

How Many Volunteers?

168

(2)

Voluntary Ethnic Organizations and Churches

170

(2)

The Case Studies

172

(4)

Understanding Older Minority Volunteers

176

(5)

Recruiting and Retaining Older Volunteers

181

(3)

Summary of Key Themes

182

(2)

The Benefits to Older Volunteers

184

(11)

The Benefits of Productive Aging

184

(1)

The Problem of Cause and Effect

185

(1)

What Are the Benefits?

186

(4)

Tangible Versus Intangible Rewards

190

(5)

Summary of Key Themes

192

(3)

Part IV: Conclusions and Implications

Thinking Strategically About Older Volunteers

195

(23)

An Untapped Potential?

197

(2)

Five Principles of Volunteer Recruitment

199

(3)

Creative Strategies for Recruiting Older Volunteers

202

(3)

Five Principles of Volunteer Retention

205

(3)

Two Principles for Working With Older Volunteers

208

(1)

Creative Strategies for Keeping and Working With Older Volunteers

209

(3)

Guidelines for Assessing Volunteer Programs

212

(3)

The Future of Old Age

215

(3)

Appendix A The Older Volunteers Project

218

(4)

Appendix B Sources of Information on Volunteerism

222

(7)

Notes

229

(2)

References

231

(14)

Index

245

(6)

About the Authors

251

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Older Volunteers A Guide to Research and Practice

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials