Senior Corps: The Health Benefits of Volunteering for Older Americans

Research demonstrates that volunteering is associated with active lifestyles and health benefits, particularly for older Americans.  Volunteers not only help their community but also experience better health in their later years, enjoying greater levels of well-being, lower rates of depression and increased strength and energy.

Older volunteers:

• help seniors live independently in their homes
• tutor and mentor at-risk youth
• provide financial education and job training to veterans and their families
• help communities recover from disasters

Older adults who volunteer typically volunteer more hours in a year than other age groups. 

Older volunteers are also:

• living active lives through volunteering
• lowering mortality rates
• lowering rates of depression
• reporting fewer physical limitations, and higher levels of well-being
• living longer and report less disability

Health benefits of volunteering are due to: increased physical, social, and mental activity that are a result of volunteering.

• Volunteering may be particularly helpful for older Americans undergoing a life stress or for those who are at risk for being isolated.
• One study found that bereaved individuals who engaged in volunteering activities to help others experienced a shorter course of depression than those who did not volunteer.

■ Given the positive health benefits associated with volunteering, efforts should be made to engage populations that could benefit the most from volunteering or are underrepresented among current volunteers, including low-income individuals and people with disabilities. Programs such as Senior Corps that offer small stipends or reimbursements for transportation or other costs associated with volunteering make it possible for large numbers of older volunteers to serve their community.

■ Volunteering can provide a sense of purpose and future outreach should include older adults undergoing transitions such as unemployment, retirement, or the loss of a spouse.

■ For those living in rural areas, volunteering can provide an important way to stay connected and active.

■ As the leading edge of the Baby Boomer generation approaches retirement age, nonprofits and community organizations need to be ready to recruit and retain boomer volunteers.  Adoption of key practices, such as matching volunteers with appropriate and challenging assignments, providing professional development opportunities for volunteers, and treating volunteers as valued partners, can help build organizational capacity to recruit and retain boomer volunteers.

■ National days of service, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service and the September 11th National  Day of Service and Remembrance, can be an effective way to introduce new volunteers in service activities that can turn into a long-term commitment. 

For more information about Senior Corps and other programs of the Corporation for National and Community Service, visit NationalService.gov.  For a searchable database of volunteer opportunities geared to older Americans, visit GetInvolved.gov.