Baby Boomers Want Skills-Based Volunteer Work

In April of 2013 the US Government's Volunteering in the United States report showed that there the number of volunteers had dropped from the 2011 report for the age group of seniors (45 years - 64 years). Why is this in a time when people are living longer and in better health than former generations? Let's look at some possible reasons:

1. Too Busy - with pensions disappearing people in this age group are still working and might have to way into their 70s or until their health slows them down. However, there are many people who have free time and are looking for meaningful activities.

2. Obligations to parents and children - Baby boomers are really caught as the "sandwich generation" with aging parents still alive but often needing help and children who can't find work and are still at home or needing financial assistance. In former generations parents died earlier and children had jobs they were eager to pursue, often away from their childhood home towns.

3. Desire for skills-based volunteer work - Richard Eisenberg writing for Forbes points out that seniors want meaningful work, not just busy work.

But I think a key reason is that many boomers haven’t found ways they can volunteer the way they want to, by putting their talents and skills to use, rather than by stuffing envelopes, answering phones and donating food.
Here’s some evidence backing up my contention that boomers like providing meaningful assistance when they volunteer: According to the Volunteering in the United States survey, “providing professional or management assistance, including serving on a board or committee” is the second most popular form of volunteering for Americans over 55, after “collecting, preparing, distributing or serving food.”

He points out that people who have retired from $500/hour jobs don't want to work for $10/hour type jobs. While the upper echelons of wage earners might stay on a consultants or better yet, continue to work part time, there are still plenty of workers who are required to retire at 65 or at least 70 years of age.

Here are some great resources for people who are looking for meaningful, challenging work that will keep their minds and bodies active, remove isolation and enable them to "give back" to their communities. These are community directories that steer baby boomers to skills-based volunteering. One is Points Of Light that handles 250 service projects in 29 different countries. With age comes life wisdom and a stability that is so useful to others living in less fortunate situations. Two other organizations working with Points of Light are Generation On and Hands On Network.

With Google at the service of everyone these days it's easy to find such organizations in local communities - everything from volunteer teaching to helping unemployed to achieve career success to helping the elderly stay in their homes. Minnesota has started Minnesota Boomer Corp and recruit people who can commit 10 hours per week. The US government has developed a Senior Corps Program, modeled after the Peace Corps, based on skills-based volunteering. Everyone has become aware that here is a great resource of free skilled labor that can be used positively.