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- Title
Doomed to Extinction? The Nature and Future of Volunteering for Meals-on-Wheels Services.
- Authors
O'Dwyer, Ciara; Timonen, Virpi
- Abstract
Meals-on-wheels services in Ireland and elsewhere rely heavily on volunteers to operate. Meals-on-wheels services that draw extensively on volunteers’ contributions both benefit from and augment social capital within communities. Based on interviews with voluntary and paid meals-on-wheels coordinators and staff carried out in early 2007, this article examines: (1) the recruitment and retention of volunteers; (2) motivations for volunteering; (3) the nature of the contributions of volunteers; and, (4) the future role of volunteering within the service. The article argues that volunteerism in meals provision for older adults in Ireland is in crisis. The recruitment and retention of volunteers may be improved if service providers gain a better understanding of the motivations of volunteers and develop strategies to ensure that volunteers have an opportunity to engage in work that corresponds to their original motivations, which includes enhancing the social capital of their communities.
- Subjects
IRELAND; MEALS on wheels programs; VOLUNTEERS; SOCIAL capital; COMMUNITIES; OLDER people
- Publication
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary & Nonprofit Organizations, 2009, Vol 20, Issue 1, p35
- ISSN
0957-8765
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11266-008-9074-8