How do older volunteers feel?

My age is completely irrelevant to my volunteering.
What made or would make you decide to volunteer?
I have no idea. I have been a volunteer in some form or another almost my whole adult life and my approach in my 70s is the same as it was when I was in my 20s: a cause I am interested in supporting, in a role relevant to my experience and interests that is a good fit for my normal life.
How would you go about picking an organisation to volunteer with?
I have never 'picked ' an organisation to volunteer with. The right one has always appeared at the right time. When my children were young I volunteered with organisations that provided for or helped them. I have volunteered for my church and the political party I support. Since retiring I have worked for what was Age Concern, a several heritage organisations and recently, SSAFA.
What would be a barrier to volunteering for you?
What would put you off or worry you about ^volunteering?
I will answer these two together, the answer to both is nothing.
However I do have a constraint, and that is that I cannot, for myriad reasons, commit to a regular weekly volunteer slot, but over the last 20 years I have volunteered for charities where my work has been client based so that I contact the client and arrange a mutually convenient meeting time, which is slotted around my other commitments
What would you hope to get out of it?
As with a job, job satisfaction. The knowledge that I am helping people or a cause that needs help.
What do you think you could bring to the organisation?
What I have always brought are my work skills in information retrieval and dissemination working at a personal level with the information seekers, usually as a benefits/adviser/problem solver.

The question you haven't asked and should have is:
What do organisations have to do to keep their volunteers?
Well, training is one thing and the other and most important is proper back up and support. I have just given up volunteering with a charity doing work I enjoyed because they have a particularly complicated and arcane computer system that did not work well on my computer. All that was needed was one person who knew the system to spend half a day with me sorting the problems out and bringing me up to speed on its little idiosyncrasies. But in over a year of asking that has never happened. I finally got fed up of asking and my computer problems were causing problems for my clients so I resigned and am looking for something else to do.

Before I came to France (aged 65) I volunteered for various things - I missed being busy with my previous career. Driving to hospital appts., visiting the elderly at home, visiting mentally sick in hospital etc.
One job was in a day centre for the elderly, helping to serve their mid-day meal. I found that some of the people I helped were older than me!
At that time, (I think), a new regulation came in, that to be a volunteer helper you had to be accredited and meet certain criteria. It nearly put me off altogether.
In fact I backed out of another volunteer job in a shop selling for a charity.
Another trend I found at that time was that young people were more likely to expect to be paid for 'voluntary' work.

I think the most successful volunteer mix from both sides is where the volunteer has an interest in and is comfortable with the aims of the project and how it works. It’s a two way street, volunteers give their time and expertise but should reasonably expect ‘job satisfaction’ . I’m about to move on from a voluntary role because I am frankly bored and feel very unsupported. I can align myself with the purpose of the organisation but am uncomfortable with much of the day to day working practices.

Clarity of expectation from both sides and an accurate understanding of the parameters of the role before the volunteer begins helps. An awareness that volunteers of any age may not be overly confident with new situations so a proper induction and explanation of what is expected.

If it’s a role where volunteers might listen to and hear distressing or difficult issues then a chance to offload if necessary. This could be on an ad hoc basis or from a regular ‘supervision’. It’s important it can be provided without fuss.

Keep volunteers interested. If there are boring tasks make sure they are shared round.

Consider the physical and emotional needs of a volunteer. Older volunteers may come with physical limitations. It helps if these are quietly taken into account without any awkwardness. Some volunteers live alone and appreciate contact with others, others appreciate a solitary role.

Travel expenses can be a cause of awkwardness. Good practice encourages the payment of out of pocket expenses, not everyone wants to claim but it is vital that there is a simple, non discriminatory method. My preference is that there is a simple system that everyone uses - what the volunteer then does with their expenses is up to them but no one should feel uncomfortable if they couldn’t volunteer without having out of pocket expenses reimbursed.

I’m actually comfortable with anti social hours volunteering, we’re all different. I appreciate a setting where I can learn something new, so patient people around me are more than useful!

Many organisations would struggle without the input of volunteers. Sometimes a simple thank you at the end of a session is forgotten, it’s a shame because a thank you goes a long way.

I’m sure none of this is new to you kaycee, hope it helps a bit though.

I agree about travel costs Christine, and working unsociable hours, although I used to do hospital visiting on Sunday evenings. (I came away feeling so sad for those people so sick with no visitors.) Becoming emotionally attached is a problem for me I discovered and that's why I decided not to work with animal charities as a pet-stroker. I did enquire and do half a day. I wanted to take all the stray dogs and cats home with me. I now donate old blankets, towels and food. I am better in administrative roles really as a receptionist and I have also been elected to several committees to 'have a say' and be involved in the organisation of things. I still feel visiting in old folks homes would be helpful and I have also considered being a voluntary driver to take people without transport to and from hospital. My problem now I am retired is being slightly less flexible in terms of time because OH has retired. We tend to do things on a whim and depending on the weather, but if I have commitments to charities I like to honour them.

I picked a volunteering opportunity which involved things I enjoyed. I help to run a voluntary library and information centre. I love books so I enjoy helping.
I wouldn't choose to be involved in anything too physical now or which was technology based. I would like to help rescued dogs but the refuge is too far away to be practicable.
Financial considerations are important, volunteers don't want to be spending a lot on travel to get to their organisation.

I volunteer because I need something 'to hang my week on'. And, otherwise I would just go shopping or out for lunch.

I have volunteering for most of my married life and always for something in which I have an interest. My last two roles were with Witness Service, following a very positive experience had by my DiL when giving evidence in Court, and Alzheimer's Society after the husbands of 2 friends were diagnosed and they felt abandoned until they contacted AS.

A barrier to my volunteering would be if I thought I was going to be 'upset' by what was involved or if I thought I would be out of my depth.

I am not happy volunteering at night on a regular basis.

Helping to improve the situation of the people I came into contact with is what I hope I do.

In my last two roles my ability to chat to and, more importantly, listen to the people using the service is what I bring.

The best thing about my volunteering is that I really look forward to it. I have had a few false starts but have soon realised when a role isn't for me and left and looked for something else.

It is important that the organisation has complete clarity when dealing with volunteers with regard to what is expected, what isn't, who their line manager is, volunteer engagement, expenses policy etc.

Hope this helps.