New Research on Baby Boomer Volunteers

The Corporation for National and Community Service is a government agency that supports volunteer organizations, conducts research about volunteerism, and promotes volunteering in the United States. They have recently published an issue brief called "Baby Boomers and Volunteering: Findings from Corporation Research" and a research report called "Keeping Baby Boomers Volunteering: a Research Brief on Retention and Turnover" (found via theMatureMarket.com).

Key Findings of These Reports:

• Baby Boomers from 46-57 have higher volunteer rates than older generations.
• How Baby Boomers become volunteers is important - people asked to help by the volunteer organization have a much higher retention rate than those asked by their employer to volunteer.
  
• Baby Boomers favorite type of volunteering is with religious organizations.
  
• Baby Boomers' second favorite type of volunteer activity is educational and youth services - whereas previous generations chose civic, political, business and international volunteer work as their second most popular volunteer category.
• Remaining in the workforce increases the likelihood that a Baby Boomer will stay in their volunteer position.
• A higher educational level and a tendency to have children later in life seem to be factors in the high volunteer rate of Baby Boomers.
• Baby Boomers volunteers who do management or professional tasks, rather than general labor, are more likely to continue to volunteer.
  

The Corporation for National and Community Service has projected the number of volunteers from 2007 to 2050. They created this projection by multiplying the estimated probability of volunteering by the number of people age 65 and older for each year. There are a little under 9 million senior volunteers at present. They predict that there will be 9 and a half million senior volunteers by 2010 and over 13 million in 2020. That is approximately a 44% increase in the next 13 years!

These statistics have great implications for public libraries. First, here is a great opportunity for libraries to gain more older adult volunteers in the future. Currently, many older adult volunteers help libraries by doing tasks such as pulling hold requests and shelving books. This research shows that many Boomers will want to be challenged and use their life skills in their volunteer work. Therefore, we should consider how to recruit older adults to give programs, to lead workshops at the library, or to become mentors at our libraries.

Related research report from Dec 2006:
Volunteer Growth in America: A Review of Trends since 1974

See also these previous posts:
How Volunteering Can Benefit Older Adults
Age Differences in Volunteering

"Lifelong Partners in Reading" Program

Palm Harbor Library in Florida has started a new outreach program for local residents in assisted living facilities. The program is called "Lifelong Partners in Reading". The library is recruiting high school students and adults who will read magazines, newspapers, etc. for older adults who can no longer read. Many high school students are looking for ways to volunteer to complete requirements for National Honor Society or for scholarships. The are many potential benefits to this program: it is a great way to increase teen participation in library activities, it could lead to partnerships with local assisted living residences, and it could improve intergenerational communication and understanding. Having someone read to a resident does more than just allow that resident to enjoy the newspaper, it also gives the resident someone to talk to. I think that the social aspect of this program could mean a lot to the participants.

The August 2007 Florida Library Association News Digest described this program (this digest is subscription only). Also, there was a recent Clearwater Gazette article about this program.

Note to Readers:
I am always looking for information about successful library programs for older adults - to describe and discuss on this blog. If you would like to share a story about such a program, or point me to an interesting resource for older adults, please leave a comment or email me (the link is on the profile page of this blog).

How Volunteering Can Benefit Older Adults

Libraries are often interested in promoting volunteerism in older adults and encouraging their participation in library programing and intergenerational programs (see the excellent list of older adult services by Allan Kleiman). These libraries may also be looking for grants to fund such programs. It could be useful in grant applications to cite the Social Science research that shows the individual benefits from volunteering. I will be discussing some of the published papers about the benefits of volunteering in this post, so that it can be a handy starting point for librarians seeking this data.

Volunteering has many significant benefits for individuals, from an increased sense of well being, to increased social bonding and ego gratification (Cutler & Hendricks, 2000, p. s99). Individuals can also gain more social support (Cutler & Hendricks, 2000).

Morrow-Howell et al. (2003) studied older adults, which they defined as people 60 years of age and older. Morrow-Howell et al. (2003) found that the reported level of well-being increased as the number of hours people volunteered increased. This result was independent of the type of volunteer organization, the number of volunteer organizations to which the individual belonged, or the race or gender of the volunteer. As a result, this benefit is universal for older adults.

Greenfield and Marks (2004) investigated the effects of formal volunteering on older adults' psychological well being. They found that volunteering had a positive effect on psychological well being and the it helped to offset the negative effects of no longer having a spouse, no longer having a job, or not having any living children. They conclude that volunteering helps older adults to "be cheerful and happy in later adulthood" (p. S265).

Musick, Herzog, and House (1999) actually found that volunteering had a protective effect against mortality for people aged 65 and older who volunteered 40 hours or less within the past year!

Age differences in volunteering?

It was previously thought that volunteerism gradually increased until it peaked at the age of about age 55 and then declined quickly (Cutler & Hendricks, 2000). However, previous studies did not compare different age groups while controlling for differences in sociodemographic attributes - such as the differences in mortality between men and women and the levels of education (Cutler & Hendricks, 2000). When these factors are controlled, it is evident that the older age groups are the most involved in volunteerism (Cutler & Hendricks, 2000).

Cutler and Hendrick predict that if people begin to live longer and educational levels increase, there will be even higher rates of older adult volunteering. This pool of available volunteers will also be increasing as the number of older adults in the United States increases (see a previous post). As a result, older adults are a great potential resource for libraries.

Libraries can encourage older adults to volunteer at the library and participate in intergenerational programs. In addition, libraries can act as bridges to connect older adults with local nonproft organizations and schools who are looking for volunteers. Information about local volunteer activities can be provided on signage at the library, promoted face-to-face by the staff, and included on the library website on a page set up for older adults.