CORE
🇺🇦
make metadata, not war
Services
Services overview
Explore all CORE services
Access to raw data
API
Dataset
FastSync
Content discovery
Recommender
Discovery
OAI identifiers
OAI Resolver
Managing content
Dashboard
Bespoke contracts
Consultancy services
Support us
Support us
Membership
Sponsorship
Community governance
Advisory Board
Board of supporters
Research network
About
About us
Our mission
Team
Blog
FAQs
Contact us
Senior companion program volunteers: Exploring experiences, transformative rituals, and recruitment/retention issues
Authors
Jericho McElroy
Haley Robertson
Jason S. Ulsperger
Kristen Ulsperger
Publication date
21 September 2015
Publisher
Online Research Commons @ ATU
Abstract
Senior Companion Programs (SCPs) help the homebound elderly. They operate through local Area Agencies on Aging, but any nonprofit institution can apply for funding and operate a SCP. Program volunteers are 55 and older. They visit qualified elderly clients, which includes people who do not have the ability to fully care for themselves. Volunteers provide social interaction to clients, but they also provide a minimal level of services, such as grocery shopping, light housekeeping, and respite for caregivers. Examining the experiences of volunteers in these programs can help us better understand why actively engaging with others is important as we age. It can also help us establish a knowledge base that aids in our understanding of how to recruit and retain senior volunteers. This article uses data gathered from phenomenologically based, qualitative in-depth interviews of 10 SCP volunteers. Focusing on volunteer experiences, it uses structural ritualization theory to analyze various volunteer activities, which the research considers ritualized symbolic practices. It also considers how transformative rituals within a SCP impact volunteerism, and it provides recommendations on how to increase SCP volunteer recruitment and retain volunteers. The article concludes with suggestions for future research. © 2015: Jason S. Ulsperger, Jericho McElroy, Haley Robertson, Kristen Ulsperger, and Nova Southeastern University
Similar works
Full text
Open in the Core reader
Download PDF
Available Versions
Online Research Commons @ATU (Arkansas Tech University)
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
oai:orc.library.atu.edu:facult...
Last time updated on 01/03/2021
NSU Works
See this paper in CORE
Go to the repository landing page
Download from data provider
oai:nsuworks.nova.edu:tqr-2301
Last time updated on 11/11/2016