Why I chose to volunteer after retiring from academia

I like volunteering for many reasons. Volunteering provides a boost to my self-esteem. I believe I am contributing to my community, which gives me a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. It provides me with opportunities to enter new avenues of learning (e.g. writing donor funding letters, crafting strategic funding development plans). I have also gained friendships and strengthened connections with old and new colleagues. Interestingly, a growing body of social psychological work has demonstrated the importance of social group memberships across a range of volunteering opportunities. Volunteering is part of my self-identify as an academic, professional nurse and human being – but I do it selectively. I consider my interests,  values and  availability before I move forward to volunteer. As I cannot volunteer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I need to be selective in my choices.

So why did I pick the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (CNPEA) to focus so much of my volunteer work on post-retirement? Why did I agree to be the national chair? For two reasons:

1. In 2018, Lynn McDonald reported that 8.2 per cent of adults 55 years and over who lived in a community dwelling and were cognitively lucid, had experienced some form of abuse. Abuse can be experienced in the older adult’s home, a family member’s home, an assisted living facility, or a long-term care facility. It can be committed by family members, strangers, health care providers, caregivers, or friends. It also poses a serious challenge to the wellbeing and quality of life for older adults.
2. My doctoral work and academic career have always had a substantive elder abuse thread, whether through teaching, research, or publications. So for me, it seemed a natural fit – a good place to spend some volunteer time and effort.

Nongovernmental organizations, such as CNPEA, play a leading role in focusing national and international communities and governments on human rights issues, such as elder abuse. In 2022, it received funding to start work on a multi-year project by Women and Gender Equality Canada, which focuses on gender-based violence against older women. The objective is to develop promising practices for front-line workers to better address the needs of older women experiencing gender-based violence. Building bridges through awareness and education that promote trauma-informed principles and focus on equity can help address barriers to safety that are facing underserved seniors (such as older women, especially older women of colour, Indigenous and LGBTQ seniors). We have entered our third year of funding.

There are challenges, of course, such as finding time to address the goals and related activities of our new strategic plan, and to draft grant and donor submissions to ensure that we have sustainability as an organization. I never had to reach out to community funders before for operating funds or craft a three-year funding plan to align with our new strategic plan. I have since learned to do both, among other challenges, and I know that more learning lies ahead.

Through my work with CNPEA and its volunteer board, we moved the needle forward in addressing elder abuse in Canada. I hope that this explains why I chose to volunteer with this organization.

Sandra Hirst is an associate professor emerita of nursing at the University of Calgary, as well as coordinator of CURAC’s later life learning committee.

The College and University Retirees Associations of Canada/Associations des retraités des universités et collèges du Canada (CURAC/ARUCC) is a not-for-profit federation of retiree associations at colleges and universities across Canada, operated by a volunteer board of directors. Further information, including a listing of member RAs, is available at www.curac.ca or from [email protected]. The two university professors emeriti who are co-directors for the CURAC/ARUCC University Affairs column are Carole-Lynne Le Navenec and Fred Fletcher.