Retirement To Re-Fire-Ment Part I

Existing community-service organizations have not always been very creative in designing volunteer opportunities. They have tended to think in terms of simple tasks that can be done without much planning or supervision, rather than in terms of the mission they are trying to accomplish and how to use volunteers to achieve it.

There are many accounts of underutilizing volunteers, such as the case of a retired physician who volunteered her efforts at a local community hospital, only to be offered a job refilling patients’ water pitchers.

If volunteers are to become genuinely committed, they must feel that they are a valued and integral part of the organization, not a group apart. It is exactly these more complex and sustained opportunities that will promote both personal growth and social growth. Creating such roles, however, will not be easy.

The case for collaboration and creation of new faith based non profit non profit ventures is even more important.

In my next blog entry, I will give more reasons for this approach to fulfilling the need for Boomers to continue to contribute to the community in a significant way.

The Boomer Blogger