The study focuses on Senior Corps volunteers in the Atlantic Cluster, which stretches from Maine to Maryland — they contacted program directors at 105 program sites (35 from each of the three Senior Corps programs); each program director distributed 15 copies of the survey, for a total of 1,575. Volunteers returned a total of 1,075 completed surveys.
Most respondents were female, the sample was ethnically diverse, the average age was 73 years, most were widows/widowers, most lived alone, 53% had volunteered for five years or less, 47% had volunteered for over six years, and 71% of the sample reported volunteering over 16 hours per week. (Of the sample, 72% was FGP or SCP volunteers, required to complete 20 hours per week. RSVP volunteers have no minimum monthly requirement, and 71% of them reported volunteering for 10 or fewer hours per week.)
Of all respondents, 93% said the overall quality of their life is "Better" to "A Lot Better" than before they began to participate. Although all of the 10 specific quality of life and successful aging factors were perceived as improved since participation in Senior Corps, volunteers reported highest positive change in the following: pleasure gained from daily activities; feeling they make a positive difference in another person's life; feeling they have a purpose in life; having a sense of accomplishment; and looking forward to each new day.
Some other key findings: 1) Those volunteers with lower annual incomes demonstrated higher positive change in their overall quality of life since participation in Senior Corps programming; 2) Those volunteers living alone demonstrated higher improvement scores in the overall quality of their lives than those not living alone; and 3) Those volunteers reporting higher volunteer hours per week reported higher overall quality of life scores.