Volunteering as a means of social inclusion in old age:

Policy needs from the Arctic context

28 November 2018, Helsinki, Northern Dimension Future Forum on Health: Healthy Ageing

Anastasia Emelyanova, Dr. Health Sc.

• Thule Institute, University of the Arctic, University of Oulu, Finland

• World Population Program / Arctic Futures Initiative, IIASA, Austria

• Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital, Austria

University of Oulu

Emelyanova A. 2015

CROSS-REGIONAL

ANALYSIS OF

POPULATION AGING

IN THE ARCTIC

Academic doctoral dissertation. Acta

Universitatis Ouluensis D Medica 1326,

Juvenes Print Tampere

http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn978952621004

9/isbn9789526210049.pdf

PhD thesis applied alternative dynamic

definitions of age. New measures of

ageing based on “prospective” age or

remaining years to live, portrait a

different picture on ageing in the Arctic.

Thesis includes 4 peer-reviewed

research articles in international

journals and one book chapter

University of Oulu

Is the Arctic ageing?

Population pyramid 2015 and 2050

Emelyanova A. 2017. Population projections of the Arctic by levels

of education. Working Paper WP-17-022. The International Institute

for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.

10.13140/RG.2.2.22909.46563

Graphs produced: Anastasia Emelyanova

10.08 mln. people in 2015

University of Oulu

Policies of Arctic countries to promote volunteering in old age

Full analysis can be found at:

Emelyanova A., Rautio A. 2015. Policies of Arctic countries to

promote volunteering in old age. In Naskali P., Seppanen M.,

Begum S. (eds.) “Ageing, Wellbeing and Climate Change in the

Arctic: An Interdisciplinary Analysis”, Routledge, pp.49-68

“There is a bulk of research evidence that

volunteering in old age is a key tool to

promote social inclusion of the elderly

population, social cohesion, and higher

quality of life”

University of Oulu

Identified policy pointers on volunteering

in old age

University of Oulu

‒ Despite a mixture of sources used by voluntary organizations in

the Arctic, governmental support of the voluntary sector remains

minor

‒ Little sustainability of the long-term funding

‒ Little commitment from older people due to financial burden of

arrangements for volunteering

‒ Funding for creating statistics at a municipal level, the need of

considering local needs and challenges

‒ Recognizing older persons as a value for voluntary and public

sectors

‒ Prizes, awards to showing appreciation

‒ Acknowledging the independence and role of the sector is weighty

for the recruitment of new volunteers

‒ Promotion of intergenerational understanding

‒ What is the economic value of volunteering (share in GDP)?

University of Oulu

‒ Recruitment to start earlier in life

‒ Prevention of instant barriers

‒ Information pools to connect the voluntary opportunities

and older people, incl. cognitive friendly materials

‒ Framing in Arctic-dominant traditions and the culture of

volunteering. Local organizations have the best access to

stakeholders that already involve not only healthy older

people, but also vulnerable groups

‒ Identifying the formal status: basic legal framework, easier

taxation, simplified reporting and administrative burden,

insurance of volunteers

University of Oulu

‒ Preparatory and training programs for volunteers leading to

formally recognized qualifications

‒ Local and easily reachable education has to be developed

‒ Possibilities for enhancing the skills are crucial when recruiting

older persons at risk of social exclusion

‒ ‘Transition-to-retirement’ programs facilitation

‒ Heterogeneity of older population and diversity of challenges

require understanding of national and local contexts for

volunteering, profile of older volunteers and programs

‒ Funding is needed to invest in research on volunteering in old

age due to the lack of (sub-)national information

‒ Of particular interest is support to surveys collecting

multifaceted data and qualitative feedback of older volunteers

‒ Tackling non-comparable national surveys, methods to adjust,

and similar survey designs where possible e.g.

Nordic/Barents/Arctic contexts

University of Oulu

CONCLUDING REMARKS It is necessary to clarify the concept and

to define whether volunteering should be

integrated into strategy on social

inclusion or any other strategies with a

national significance, or separately In doing so, volunteering in old age

needs to be prevented from being over-

dependent on sources of income,

corporations, insurance companies, the

companies who sell the products to

older population, and alikeThe governments could support but must

not cross the line of too many regulations

and political instrumentalisation to

substitute benefits of the welfare state