News & Events

By Spontaneous Acclaim

Richmond Aims to Become a National Model for Boomer Volunteerism!

Engaging Boomer volunteers is one of the hottest topics being discussed in age-wave planning circles across the country. The Richmond community turned up the temperature a notch or two last week at the March 26, 2009 event – "Symposium on Boomer Engagement: The Future Wave of Volunteerism" held on the campus of the Virginia Commonwealth University.

While the organizers, the Older Dominion Partnership and the Community Foundation of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, billed the event as a learning and sharing symposium, a strange thing happened – the session spontaneously shifted from a forum to an audience-driven initiative.

Several noted national civic engagement experts kicked off the meeting: Darcy S. Oman, President & CEO, The Community Foundation Serving Richmond and Central Virginia; Jill Friedman Fixler, Principal, JFFixler & Associates; Dick Goldberg, Director, Coming of Age; and E. Ayn Welleford, Ph.D., Chair & Associate Professor, Department of Gerontology, Virginia Commonwealth University.

These experts were followed by a presentation by John Martin, CEO of SIR Research, on the recent findings from two ODP-sponsored research studies: Non-Profit Leaders Study and the Richmond Residents Volunteer Study. The findings were organized around a challenge and an action plan.

The challenge was how to recruit 23,000 more Boomer volunteers. That’s the number it would take to build upon the region’s existing 100,000 Boomer volunteers – to effectively make Richmond a top five major city for volunteerism….moving towards national model status. To reach this 123,000 goal, ten research-inspired imperatives were offered. You can see the entire presentation here: "What Will It Take to Make Metro Richmond One of America’s Top Cities for Boomer Volunteering? 10 Research-Inspired Imperatives".

Immediately following Mr. Martin’s presentation, the audience was invited to comment what they had heard in the morning plenary session. One of the first to do so was Karl Cureton, representing St. Paul’s Church. Stepping up to the microphone, he said:

“I thought I was invited to a learning forum. What I now realize is that I have come to the ground floor of an initiative – one that will change our industry.”

Others supported Mr. Cureton. Then someone called for the question: “How many here want to adopt these ten strategic imperatives and get focused on making Richmond a national model on volunteering?” No one in the room raised their hand. Everyone in room stood up and shouted yes!

Encouraging and facilitating greater civic engagement/volunteerism by Baby Boomers is important to the ODP for two reasons. First, it will help ensure that Boomers successfully navigate growing older. The initial 2008 ODP Residents Study found that just half of baby Boomers felt prepared to navigate the challenges of growing older. Furthermore, research revealed that there were four major predictor variables, or drivers, that directly relate to improving Boomers’ feeling of preparedness. These included areas such as managing finances/making sure savings don’t run out, affording healthcare, finding the right living arrangements, and remaining/becoming engaged in the community. ODP’s initial Work Groups were set up around these “drivers,” including the Civic Engagement Work Group.

The second reason the ODP supports work around volunteerism/civic engagement is related to the greater number of volunteer caregivers that will be needed in the future. The dramatically smaller Gen X population (Boomer kids) is not as large as the Boomer segment. There will not be enough relative caregivers to meet the demand. Help will come from all sources – immigration, more professional care, and, yes, fellow Boomers caring for Boomers – as in, caring collaborative. (Sounds like ideas hatched in the 60s, doesn’t it?)

Immediately following the vote by spontaneous acclamation to proceed with the 10 goals, an estimated 200 non-profit leaders and their volunteer coordinators attended four break-out sessions. These included Boomers Serving Seniors, The Workplace Connection, A New Paradigm of Volunteer Management, and Tapping Our Community's Diversity.

This symposium-turned-strategic-planning session, followed a successful Public Square event staged by the Richmond Times-Dispatch on March 11, 2009. Tom Silvestri, Older Dominion Partnership board chairman and publisher of the Times-Dispatch, hosted a citizen input session on the future of volunteerism in the Metro region. An expert panel and audience conversed on ways to improve volunteerism and civic engagement. Data from ODP-sponsored surveys on volunteerism in the Richmond region was shared during this session.

presentation icon Presentations from the Symposium