Retirement

Volunteering into Retirement

Local research in North Yorkshire suggests that many people who retire have not planned what they will do with their spare time, and become socially isolated because they are unaware of how they can get involved in local activities.

Volunteering enables people to meet others, make a difference to the local community, and get involved with services and support networks.

There are lots of volunteering opportunities to suit people with different interests and passions. For many people, volunteering doesn’t feel like work, it feels like a hobby, a social activity, something they enjoy.

Volunteering can:

Offer social contact to people who might otherwise be isolated.
Provide leisure opportunities, mental stimulation and enjoyment. Walking groups and other physical activities keep people fit and healthy.
Help provide with support services for people who need them, such as transport schemes enabling people to get to hospital appointments.
Offer opportunities for people who wish to contribute to the health and well-being of others to get involved in organising and supporting local services and activities.
Enable people to share their skills and experience with organisations that need them.

Find out more…

There are hundreds of opportunities across York and North Yorkshire to suit different people with different interests. If you are coming up to retirement, or have retired, and are looking for something to do with your spare time, contact your local Volunteer Centre.

If You Are An Organisation

Volunteer Centres can offer free consultations and information for staff who are approaching retirement. Contact your local Centre to find out more.

Let Us Know What You Think

If you’ve had a good or bad experience with volunteering, or if you’d like to recommend a way we can improve our services, we’d love to hear from you. Please fill out one of these forms.

Links and Resources

Check out the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s website for a report on volunteering in retirement, co-penned by the Chief Executive of Volunteering England, Justin Davis Smith:

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/volunteering-retirement

Volunteering and Retirement

York Volunteer Centres was asked by a firm of York Solicitors to provide presentations to pre-retirement workers at City of York Council, to enable people who are approaching retirement to gain information on the range of opportunities for community involvement.

Sharing Skills and Helping Others

Irene retired seven years ago, after a career working for a trade union. At first I was kept busy helping out with my grandchildren, but now they have grown up, and I felt the need to do something more with my life. eq2WRERFGUHIJOKL \SDXV Irene visited the Richmondshire Volunteer Centre and was directed to the Citizens Advice Bureau in Richmond. This opportunity suits me perfectly. The people we help have the same kind of problems I used to deal with at work. I have learned so much through the CAB training, and I really enjoy my time there. They are a great team.

Volunteering and Older people

The Thriving Third Sector report’s research of community organisations across York and North Yorkshire, 2008, suggested that the largest voluntary sector beneficiary group is older people, with 42.2% of organisations working with this group. 85% of these organisations involve volunteers in their work.

An aging population, and the dynamics of delivering cost-effective services in rural areas mean that the voluntary sector is often key to improving and maintaining the health and well-being of older residents, with community transport, home from hospital, handy-person, home-visiting, and low-level prevention schemes operating in many areas, as well as a wide range of social activities such as walking, hobby, lunch, and friendship groups.

These activities offer lots of benefits including:

They give social contact to older people who might otherwise be isolated, with interest groups providing leisure opportunities, mental stimulation and enjoyment. This can be especially important when people are living alone.
They offer support services to people who need them, such as transport schemes enabling people to get to hospital appointments.
They offer the opportunity for older people who wish to contribute to the health and well-being of others to get involved in organising and supporting local services and activities.
Walking groups and other physical activities keep people fit and healthy.

Services delivered by volunteers can support older, and other potentially vulnerable people, to live in their own homes. These services may be run by Volunteer Centres directly, or are supported by the services that Volunteer Centres offer.

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Using your skills

Catherine retired and moved to Yorkshire to be near her family and soon felt the need to get involved with the local community. Catherine found the volunteer opportunities to suit her through her local Volunteer Centre, and now volunteers at the day centre for older people in Easingwold, which she goes to every week with her guide dog.

She also became a telephone befriender for Age Concern The work is rewarding and interesting and uses Catherine's skills as a good listener and a cheerful reliable friend.

Nationally, older people aged 55 and over, and young people aged 16-24, are most likely to volunteer regularly

- Who Gives Time Now? Institute for Volunteering Research and Cabinet Office, 2007.

People who retire are not just the passive recipients of services provided by others. They are often active participants in running community activities and support services, with Age Concern North Craven estimating that 95% of their volunteers are aged over 65.

Support for people in their own homes

Volunteer Centres operate Home from Hospital schemes to enable people to return home after a hospital stay; Good Neighbour Schemes offering befriending and help with shopping etc; schemes for practical help and home repairs, decoration, and gardening; and monitoring schemes where the wellbeing of vulnerable people is checked regularly by volunteers. Wendy Barton, Project Worker at Kirkby Malzeard & Masham Rural Community Care Project explains:

“The project works exclusively with the patients of the Kirkby Malzeard & Masham GP practice and aims to support people during times of difficulty to obtain services and assistance to enable them to remain at home. It helps signpost to obtain care from statutory agencies, and works alongside them to provide the care that cannot be obtained elsewhere.

One way that this is delivered is via the use of volunteers who help prevent social isolation through visiting, relieve carers by sitting with their relative so that they can go out for a while, and carry out some practical tasks which clients are finding difficult, eg shopping, dog walking and transport to access appointments.

The functioning of the project is reliant on a good volunteer base and the continued recruitment and clearing of these volunteers is therefore essential. This is a joint approach between the on the ground project worker and direction from, and checking via, the volunteer centre.”

“On behalf of Skipton & District Branch of Parkinson’s Disease Society, I want to thank you for the quick and efficient service in the appointment of our new Secretary.”

- Rev M A Lawday