Engaging the wisdom and experience of older adults
Building on the 2005 AdvantAge Initiative, which measured the elder friendliness of the local community, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County utilized the Community Experience Partnership (CEP) assessment to build upon and drill down into the latest data. The study focused specifically in the zip code of 46617, within the city of South Bend, Indiana. It represents a research partnership among the Robinson Community Center, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, the Northeast Neighborhood Center and the University of Notre Dame.
The objective of the assessment was to identify the strengths, interests and barriers in three distinct areas relating to older adults and their civic engagement: volunteering; work for pay; lifelong learning. Partner organizations were interested in looking at how to engage vulnerable seniors in meaningful work that would be mutually beneficial to the nonprofit sector. The foundation partnered with:
- Robinson Community Learning Center—primary organizer, providing project infrastructure
- University of Notre Dame—oversaw assessment, supervised scale development; volunteer training; data management, analysis
- Northeast Neighborhood Center—provided communication vehicles to effectively reach residents, including newsletter, throughout assessment and project implementation phases
Dual approach to outreach
The project utilized two distinct processes to gather data. The first involved a telephone survey to individuals over the age of 60 who live in the 46617 zip code, and was conducted by trained seniors from the local community. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame helped develop the survey instrument, train the seniors to conduct the survey, and analyze the data. The second process used the phone survey data to acquire more qualitative information during a series of focus groups that were conducted. These processes looked to measure:
- Current level of volunteering, both formal (e.g., serving Meals on Wheels, board member) and informal (e.g., caring for an ill family member, babysitting grandchildren)
- Desire to either volunteer or work, if not currently doing so
- Obstacles to volunteering/working (e.g., health, transportation)
- Inventory of talents and interests
- Openness to learn new skills
Insightful results
The survey revealed an abundance of useful information and data concerning older adults and their motivations (or deterrents) for community engagement within the target area. With respect to focus groups, project partners recognize the challenge of matching vulnerable seniors with engagement opportunities that meet the needs of both the agency/employer and the adult. Since funding remains constricted, agencies are looking for creative partnership opportunities to expand capacity to service the growing senior population in the county.
Positive local conversations have been generated as a result of the surveys and focus groups, promoting the concept that there are great human and technical resources in our older adult community to serve the common good. Many agencies are receptive to this message and most have begun to address the attitudes of boomer retirees with flexibility and new approaches to volunteer engagement.
Next steps
Results suggest an ongoing approach that maintains the closer communication established among project partners. In working together, organizations may more effectively adapt to the changing motivations of the boomer population, providing training and tasks that match their need for meaningful roles in engagement projects.
Understanding different approaches to leisure, family commitments and time management among boomers are topics the assessment identified that need broader reflection among agency volunteer coordinators. The community foundation has played a convening role in this regard, and many organizations are already meeting many of these needs. These efforts can become more vigorously addressed and effectively coordinated among service partners with further leadership by the foundation.
The assessment also surfaced potential additional roles by the Robinson Center in the Northeast Neighborhood that would complement existing programs, rather than start new initiatives. This may be especially important if the Northeast Neighborhood Center requires ongoing capacity building support to provide consistent and reliable programming for seniors.
Final thoughts
There was a general sense the project team valued the foundation’s unique engagement of local seniors as researchers during the project. The effort remained well-grounded by seniors’ comments on the survey instrument (what to keep in, throw out), their input in focus groups, and their opinions on local organizations. The foundation also believes their ability to communicate in the vernacular of the neighborhood promoted greater trust among survey participants, and increased phone survey completion rates.
