PURPOSE Experience Corps (EC) represents a high-intensity, intergenerational civic engagement activity where older adults serve as mentors and tutors in elementary schools. Although high-intensity volunteer opportunities are designed to enhance the health and well being of older adult volunteers, little is known about the negative and positive aspects of volunteering unique to intergenerational...

An increasing number of companies use corporate volunteering programs (CVPs) to support and coordinate their employees' efforts to serve their communities. Among the most frequently touted benefits of such programs to sponsoring companies and employee volunteers alike is the opportunities for employees to develop tangible work-related skills through their volunteering activities. Evidence for s...

PURPOSE This study tested the hypothesis that volunteering in environmental organizations in midlife is associated with greater physical activity and improved mental and physical health over a 20-year period. DESIGN AND METHODS The study used data from two waves (1974 and 1994) of the Alameda County Study, a longitudinal study of health and mortality that has followed a cohort of 6,928 adults...

Based on the theoretical foundations of the caregiving system model, which holds that prosocial behavior can be conceptualized in relation to a neurobiological stress-buffering mechanism, we addressed the question of whether daily volunteering yields buffering effects in terms of suppressing a neuroendocrine response (i.e., salivary cortisol) to daily stressors. We used daily diary data from th...

BACKGROUND Capacity building partnerships between healthcare institutions have the potential to benefit both partners particularly in staff development. Previous research suggests that volunteering can contribute to professional development but there is little evidence on how learning is acquired, the barriers and facilitators to learning in this context or the process of translation of learnin...

This study uses nationally representative cross-sectional data to investigate the relationship between retirement and volunteering among men aged 50–70 in the Netherlands, and how this relationship is influenced by educational and occupational background. Based on a life-course perspective, it is hypothesized that education, socio-economic status related to the occupation and nonmanual occupati...

BACKGROUND Health partnerships between institutions in the UK and Low or Lower- middle Income Countries are an increasingly important model of development, yet analysis of partnerships has focused on benefits and costs to the Low and Lower- Middle Income partner. We reviewed the evidence on benefits and costs of health partnerships to UK individuals, institutions & the NHS and sought to underst...