Volunteering doesn’t just help individuals and our community; it’s good for your head.


Don’t you just love win-win situations? Volunteering, research proves, is one of them.


Eleanor May with Coordinator of Volunteer Resources LaDelle Irvine


A 2010 study at Chicago’s Rush Medical Center showed that seniors who said they had more purposeful lives were less likely to develop mild cognitive impair- ment and had a slower rate of cognitive decline. What constitutes a purposeful


life? Participating in meaningful and motivated behaviors that are goal-directed and intentional—you know, like volunteering.


An article by Nancy Morrow-Howell in The Journals of Gerontol- ogy looks at research on volunteering in later life. Noting that gerontological scholars have “long believed that activity is good for older adults,” she cites research (Freedman, 2001) proposing that, in promoting civic engagement, all activity is not created equal. “The attraction to volunteering is the ‘win-win’: the social value to society and the personal benefit to older adults. Vol- unteering may have a more positive effect on older adults than younger ones (Van Willigen, 2000). Further- more, volunteering may be more health producing than other types of social par- ticipation (Piliavin & Siegl, 2007).”


So. Volunteers? Winning.


Members and volunteers Berta Hysell and Inge Hull with UVa medical students Michael Silva and Jonathan Sotosky. At top, Dela Alexander, Med Ed Coordinator.


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