A first three months of well moderated Global Town Halls with the International Federation on Ageing (IFA) wrapped up last Friday June 26th with an uplifting presentation and discussion with Ruth Marks, Chief Executive of the Wales Council for Voluntary Action. It deserves repeating that the value of these IFA Town Halls has been worth getting up early in the morning for while others in Wales for example are hitting lunchtime.
Apart from the amazing presenters, the major takeaway is hearing from others around the world as to how their society, their cultures are living out and coping with life in a COVID world. This Town Hall had shared contributions from people in communities from Ireland, Wales and England, which was the first time their voices were noticeable.
Ruth Marks is one of those people who stands out authentically on a platform like Zoom, and she held my attention with her crisp, clear and compassionate language. Rare to see someone pop out like that, as if she were there in person. One of the things that stood out for me in her comments had to do with technology. In her dialogue she discussed how in this physically distanced era, we have to learn how to adapt to volunteering through digital platforms.
What’s more, some current popular technologies are not accessible to everyone and a new phrase, at least to my ears, was “digital poverty”. This is a new learning curve where we need to break some barriers, and thus it behooves us to encourage and capitalize on inter-generational volunteerism. While digital technologies can help, we cannot ignore the basics such as hand written greeting cards or phone calls.
Marks spoke to diversity and inclusion in volunteerism, which also addresses other societal issues at play these days and then there is the issue that to some extent the volunteer contributions of older people particularly have largely been overlooked or undervalued. Perhaps older people themselves need to, as Marks suggested – just ask, how can I help, though in some countries older people are now reluctant to volunteer in light of COVID. Oh, how have we shut out over 70’s as volunteers!
Older people are “asset rich” as volunteers and as Ruth Marks concluded, we need to strip out the layers of bureaucracy (and for that matter pre-conceived ideas or negative self-talk) in order to engage older volunteers.
Into July, the IFA Town halls continue, but for the next four weeks, I will take some time away from usual topics on aging and longevity with my annual series of Summer Shorts, and this year I will focus my thoughts on my favourite world city – Venice, an icon of longevity.