How Volunteering Can Enhance Your Lifestyle After 50

Have you finally done it, and made your way through the maze that is working life? Or perhaps you feel that there is more fulfilling career for you out there. Whether you are seeking a new purpose in retirement, or just want to broaden your skill set to boost your job prospects, volunteering can offer some exciting prospects.

Volunteering Equals Better Wellness

It is a known fact that volunteering can support cognitive function and increase wellbeing. People who volunteer are making a difference and contributing to their community. This can help foster a renewed sense of confidence and purpose. Volunteering jobs often involve some kind of physical activity which helps people stay active and contributes to better mental health.  

Volunteering can also improve our social connections. This is vital for our mental health. It is particularly important following retirement when people may not have the day-to-day interaction they enjoyed whilst working. Volunteering can help fill this void, allowing you to meet new likeminded people, and build a new social friend group.

Taking on a volunteer role can be a chance to share your expertise or try out a potential new interest. It can also be a chance to learn new skills. For those who have some time left at work and are unhappy in their current role, volunteering can offer a much-needed foot in the door. Especially if you have no prior experience. For example, have you always wanted to work with animals, or maybe want to share your valuable life experience and make a difference to younger people? Volunteering in these areas could help you build up the necessary skill set needed.

What are your skills and passions?

To get the best out of volunteering it’s useful to consider what you could bring to the role in terms of expertise, enthusiasm and ability.  However, it’s all about having a go, and trying new things, so don’t let lack of experience put you off as willing volunteers are always valued.

Are you a people person who loves to chat, someone who radiates empathy, or are your more focused and introverted? Either way there is a volunteering opportunity available to suit your personality type. Many volunteering jobs cater for niche interests. You could get involved with anything from dry stone walling to DJing on hospital radio! It all depends on your motivations. Do you want to improve your community, meet new people, share your skills, or learn a new skill?

There are thousands of volunteering roles in the UK. The list below gives some ideas to get you started.

Volunteering In The UK

For general volunteering see the NCVO website.

Youth

Reach UK pair mentors in the London and Manchester areas with a young person for 2 hours a week supporting them and working on basic Maths and English

The Kings Trust (formerly the Princes Trust) has a wide array of Youth mentoring opportunities 

Grandmentors facilitate  Intergenerational Mentoring for Young Care Leavers to “empower youths to discover their strengths and achieve their goals”

With Action Tutoring you can share your wisdom and experience with disadvantaged youngsters. It’s only one hour a week commitment and no prior teaching experience is needed. 

Trustee and Governance roles 

At Reach Volunteering‘s website potential trustees can search for volunteer roles right across the UK. With diverse roles supporting animals and wildlife, the arts, human rights, climate change and substance misuse, to name a few, there is bound to be an area that fits your skill set or interests.

Animal shelters

Animal shelters in the UK rely on public donations and volunteers to carry out their amazing work. Organisations such as the RSPCA are always on the lookout for volunteers with a wide range of skills. From small animal caring, and dog fosterers to videographers, see more at the RSPCA website. 

The Blue Cross also has many different roles from horse care to working in one of their local
charity shops. 

As well as caring for animals, Dogs Trust also has many other interesting volunteer opportunities such as gardening at their re-homing centres 

Hospital & Befriending volunteering

Offer your services free to the NHS and help support people’s health and wellbeing.

The Royal Voluntary Service run a skills match service to help you get the most from your volunteering role in the NHS 

Or you can search directly for roles on the NHS volunteer website 

Want to make a real difference to a lonely older person? You can get involved with telephone or face to face befriending with Age UK

Charity shops

Want to volunteer at a local charity shop – you check with local charities directly, search on any of the major charity websites or use a charity search site such as NCVO

Food banks

Due to the rising cost of living, more people than ever are turning to food banks to survive. There are many local foodbanks you could approach regarding volunteer opportunities. The Trussell Trust are one of largest Food bank charities in the UK. You can find volunteering opportunities on their website. 

Outdoors and Nature

From House Collections volunteers, café assistants, outdoor maintenance, beach cleaning and countryside rangers (to name but a few), the National Trust has a plethora of opportunities to suit all abilities, interests and skills. Check out their latest volunteering roles here.

Time Banks

Volunteering doesn’t always have to be completely selfless! Time banking involves giving your time or expertise to help someone in your local community. It’s just for one hour at a time. You then accrue an hours’ worth of help from someone else on the Time Bank. It’s a win, win! See the Timebank website for further details. 

How do I get started:

As well as the resources given above. It can often be useful to talk to people who already volunteer to find out what they have enjoyed/disliked about their experience. You could contact a volunteer centre to find out about local opportunities, or contact smaller local organisations directly.

Try and be flexible with what’s offered, you may be surprised at how capable and adaptable you are. Plus, once you are established, there may be a chance of other more suitable roles, or even employment.

Conclusion

Seniors have so much to offer their local community. You’ve been there, and done that. It’s also never too later to discover new passions. Sometimes a new role in volunteering can help you uncover hidden interests or discover talents you didn’t know you had.

Volunteering can help you achieve a renewed sense of purpose post-retirement, or help you hone or learn new skills to take on a more satisfying role in your later working years.

Whatever the reason, volunteering is its own reward and will result in a happier, healthier and more motivated you. You give back, you get back.

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