Active Citizenship in Later Life: Older Volunteers in a Deprived Community in England

Older people are typically characterized as recipients of care who make ever increasing demands on overstretched and underfunded social care services. This article is about older people as givers of care to nonhousehold members. It draws on an in-depth study of volunteering in an English community beset by concentrated poverty and worklessness. Older adults, especially women, make up a significant component of those who give time through volunteering for organizations that provide social welfare services for people in need in that community. Although older adults had diverse ways of thinking about volunteering, they often undertook the effort as an expression of care and support to others.