“I’m Part of Something That Matters”: Exploring What Older Adults Value Through Their Engagement in Age-Friendly Community Initiatives

ABSTRACT

Older adults’ engagement in age-friendly community (AFC) initiatives is considered an essential element of community transformation. However, research on older adults’ experiences of engaging in AFC initiatives remains nascent. Based on qualitative interviews with 23 older adult participants from 15 AFC initiatives across four states in the United States (U.S.), our reflexive thematic analysisidentified three themes regarding what participants value from their engagement: (a) social contribution; (b) social connectedness and integration; and (c) staying active and personal growth. Exploring older adults’ interest in contributing to, connecting with, and growing in their community can inform recruitment and retention in AFC initiatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Age-friendly community
• older adult involvement
• value of engagement

Older adults’ engagement in age-friendly community (AFC) initiatives is widely recognized as a critical and defining dimension of AFC initiative implementation. Illustratively, the World Health Organization (WHO) positions older adults as “full partners at all stages” in developing and implementing communities’ work toward AFC progress (World Health Organization [WHO], 2007, p. 11). Research has demonstrated that older adults can engage in AFC initiatives in a variety of capacities, including as content experts, leaders, advocates, and active implementers (Greenfield & Reyes, 2022). Furthermore, although one conceptual paper has described how AFC initiatives can generate social connections, increase access to resources/services, and strengthen the social influence of older adults (Menec, 2017), few studies have systematically explored older adults’ first-hand experiences of their AFC engagement. To inform research and practices that foster and sustain older adults’ engagement in AFC initiatives, our study explores the perceived value of AFC engagement among a multi-state sample of older adults working to implement AFC initiatives in the United States (U.S.).

Background

AFC initiatives are intentional efforts to improve the social and/or physical environments of communities to promote the health and well-being of older residents through collaborative efforts spanning public bodies, service providers, older adults, and other sectors (Greenfield et al., 2015). These multi-sectoral partnerships support AFC initiatives in their aim to enhance the life quality among people of all ages by addressing eight major domains within a community: outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, social participation, respect and social inclusion, civic participation and employment, communication and information, and community support and health services (WHO, 2007). While AFC initiatives take on unique organizational structures and programmatic activities in response to local contexts and circumstances (Hong et al., 2023), these deliberate efforts are broadly characterized by multi-sector collaboration (Menec & Brown, 2022), older adult engagement (Buffel, 2018), and a multi-year chronological/programmatic structure encompassing community assessments, action planning, implementation, and progress reports (WHO, 2018). Alongside proliferation in the number of communities committing to AFC progress across the world since 2010 (Rémillard-Boilard et al., 2021; WHO, 2023), a growing number of scholarly papers have examined the conceptualization, implementation, and outcomes of AFCs (Forsyth & Lyu, 2023; Rémillard-Boilard et al., 2021; Torku et al., 2021).

Of particular interest to this literature are the ways in which older adults engage in the research and practice of AFC efforts (Buffel & Phillipson, 2016; Menec et al., 2011; Rémillard-Boilard et al., 2017). In this discourse, engaging older adults in AFCs is viewed as an essential component for informing AFC change (Forsyth & Lyu, 2023; Greenfield & Reyes, 2022). Furthermore, studies of community age-friendliness drawing on older adults’ perceptions have a long history in AFC research, beginning with the earliest WHO project to develop its age-friendly conceptual model (Plouffe & Kalache, 2010). Accordingly, older adult perspectives on AFCs have spanned continents (e.g., Lee & Kim, 2020; Monachesi, 2023), using both quantitative (e.g., Smith et al., 2013) and qualitative (e.g., Novek & Menec, 2014; Parekh et al., 2018) approaches.

This body of research has identified key AFC features supporting social/civic engagement and connectedness according to older adults’ perspectives (e.g., Cao et al., 2020; Y. J. Choi, 2020; M. S. Choi et al., 2020). Although scholars have called for older adults to be seen as integral co-producers and co-creators of knowledge and as partners in community-engaged research on AFCs (Buffel, 2018; Buffel & Phillipson, 2016; Goulding, 2019), older adults’ roles in AFC efforts have largely been as recipients or consultants AFC change processes (Rémillard-Boilard et al., 2017).

Literature on older adults’ engagement in AFC implementation

Extending from the conceptual emphasis of older adults’ AFC engagement and their perceptions of AFC features, research on AFC development and implementation sheds light on older adults as leaders and implementers of AFC initiatives. However, few AFC implementation studies have drawn upon insights directly from older adults. Illustratively, a recent scoping review of AFC initiative outcomes by Forsyth and Lyu (2023) found that, while more effective AFC initiatives engaged older adults in implementation, only four of the 23 projects collected primary data from the perspective of older adults. Although the AFC implementation literature offers important information on the contextual factors and program elements critical for AFC implementation (see Spina & Menec (2015) and Redondo & Gascón (2016)), only Colibaba et al. (2020) have addressed how older adults perceive their own contribution to AFC implementation. Colibaba et al. (2020) studied the AFC initiative in Temiskaming Shores, Canada – an AFC initiative run by local residents with one contracted AFC coordinator. Through qualitative interviews, participants self-reflexively recognized their critical role in complementing paid AFC staff members while reporting burnout due to high volunteering demands placed on residents in small rural communities (Colibaba et al., 2020).

Older adults’ AFC engagement as civic participation

From a broader perspective, older adults’ AFC engagement can further be positioned as a form of civic participation that entails prosocial behavior beyond one’s household with or without explicit intentions to influence policies and politics (Parekh et al., 2018; Serrat et al.,2020, 2023). Civic engagement through traditional organized volunteering programs often involves older adults providing direct services for individual clients, such as companionship and tutoring (Georges et al., 2018; Hood et al., 2018; Tan et al., 2016). In contrast, older AFC participants interact with other actors to influence high-level societal systems in their communities through advocacy, meeting organization, report writing, and event planning (Greenfield & Reyes, 2022; Greenfield et al., 2015; Menec, 2017). Relatedly, despite the growing recognition of older adults as political advocates through AFC initiatives (Bui et al., 2021), AFC engagement is typically not conducted in the context of a community’s political organization. In other words, AFC engagement may have unique features that distinguish it from traditional volunteering and overtly political participation. Although meaningful civic and social engagement has long been associated with better psychological and social well-being among older adults (Keyes, 1998; Morrow-Howell, 2010; Ryff,1989, 2018; Ryff & Keyes, 1995), additional research is necessary to understand what older participants value about their engagement in the unique AFC context and how AFC engagement complements or resembles other well-established forms of civic engagement.

Focus of the current study

In summary, although the importance of older adults’ engagement has been widely acknowledged in the AFC conceptualization and implementation literature (Menec, 2017; Menec et al., 2011; Scharlach & Lehning, 2015), very few empirical studies have systematically examined older participants’ subjective experiences in implementing AFC initiatives. This knowledge gap is heightened by the distinctiveness of AFC engagement compared to volunteering for federal programs or political participation examined in the existing literature (Georges et al., 2018; Serrat et al., 2020). Examining civic engagement in this unique context has the potential to enhance older adults’ engagement in AFC efforts and enrich the broader literature on civic engagement in later life. Sensitized by the literature on AFC implementation, civic engagement, and social and psychological well-being, this study examines the following research question: What do older adults value from their AFC engagement?

Method

Design

This study is situated with a larger qualitative research project exploring the functions and perceptions of older adult engagement in AFC initiatives. The present study’s focus on how older adults ascribe value to AFC engagement emerged from the iterative analysis within a two-phase parent project. In an initial pilot phase, the project focused on older adults’ age-friendly engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first eight interviews for the project were conducted in New Jersey during this phase (March-April 2021). Determining that the preliminary insights warranted further exploration of older adults’ AFC engagement beyond the pandemic, EG and NEP expanded the project’s conceptual and methodological scope into a second phase. This second phase involved restructuring the interview guide, conducting 15 additional interviews with participants across a greater diversity of organizational structures and geographies, and adding QC to the research team as a later-life volunteerism scholar. Phase 2 interviews were conducted between August 2021 and January 2022. The study received IRB approval from Rutgers University (Pro2021000289). Participants gave verbal consent and were informed of the voluntary nature of their participation, the confidentiality of their data, and their ability to withdraw consent.

Sampling and data collection

Nested theoretical sampling guided the selection of geographies, AFC initiatives, and older adult participants. The decision to sample AFC initiatives from different geographies was designed to maximize the heterogeneity of AFC organizational structures (Creswell, 2014), given that an AFC initiative’s structure, such as funding and leadership, represents a conditioning context for older adults’ engagement (Scharlach, 2012). Because there tend to be regional similarities in AFC initiative structures in the U.S (Greenfield et al., 2015), we used geography coupled with organizational structure as our first level of sampling criteria.

Balancing theoretical and feasibility dimensions (Braun & Clarke, 2021a), we sampled older adults affiliated with AFC initiatives from geographies representing differing AFC organizational structures and where the research team had recruitment connections: New Jersey (NJ), Maine (ME), Kentucky (KY), and Pennsylvania (PA). AFCs in NJ and ME participated in communities of practice, such that AFCs in NJ were members of a multi-county network through a regional grant-making initiative, and AFCs in ME were often older adult-led and part of a statewide mentorship program. AFCs in KY and PA were often led locally by a multi-sector coalition. Within the selected AFC initiatives, individuals were eligible to participate if they (a) did not live in a long-term care facility, (b) were age 60 or over, and (c) exhibited a threshold level of AFC engagement, defined as participating in AFC activities beyond solely receiving services or attending events (e.g., by being a volunteer, a member of an AFC committee, a member of a leadership team/advisory team). We predetermined a desired sample size range (20–25 participants) and concluded data collection upon reaching a satisfactory conceptual density of preliminary themes determined via team consensus (Braun & Clarke, 2021a, 2021b).

Interviews were approximately one hour long and were conducted via Zoom. The semi-structured interview guide (see Appendix A) consisted of iterative questions exploring the trajectory of participants’ age-friendly engagement and the value they ascribed to engagement. NEP manually transcribed the first eight interviews, and a secure transcription service transcribed the remaining interviews. Incentives ($25 electronic gift cards) were provided to participants in the second phase; funding was not available during the pilot phase.

Sample

The sample included 23 participants from 15 AFC initiatives. As displayed in Table 1, most AFC initiatives in the sample were in NJ (N = 5) and ME (N = 7), as were the largest portions of sample participants (N = 9 from NJ and N = 8 from ME). This distribution reflects the higher number of AFC initiatives in these two states compared to KY and PA (AARP, n.d.). Three sample participants came from KY (two initiatives), and another three participants were from PA (one initiative). On average, there were one to two study participants from each AFC initiative. The sample included moderate-sized cities in KY and PA, moderate-sized suburban communities in NJ, and rural communities in ME. Communities in ME were older and more socio-demographically homogenous whereas communities in NJ tended to be younger and more diverse. As shown in Table 2, study participants had been engaged with their AFC for five years on average. Participants were ages 75 years, on average (range: 62–92 years). Most of the 23 participants identified as white (n = 19), female (n = 18), and living with a partner (n = 17). Over half of the sample had a graduate degree (n = 15) and a household income between $25,000–$75,000 (n = 13). Most participants were either leaders of their AFC initiative or a specific committee (N = 11) or were AFC advisory committee members (N = 10).

Table 1. Age-friendly community initiative and community descriptives.

						N or Mean (Range)
						NJ	ME	KY	PA	TOTAL
Age-Friendly Initiative Descriptives (N = 15)
No. AFCIs						5	7	2	1	15
Total No. of Participants/State						9	8	3	3	23
Avg. No. Participants/AFCI						1.8 (1–3)	1.1 (1–2)	1.5 (1–2)	3.0	1.9
Average Year Joined AARP Network						2018 (2018–2019)	2017 (2015–2018)	2015 (2014–2016)	2015	2016
Lead Organization
Coalition						4	3	1	0	8
Local Non-Profit						1	1	1	1	4
Area Agency on Aging						0	2	0	0	2
Gov. Agency						0	1	0	0	1
Community-Level Descriptives* (N = 15) †
Average Total Population Size						44,738	10,841	475,194	300,431	103,360
Population 65+**						13%	21%	15%	15%	15%
White Alone, Not Hispanic or Latino**						29%	93%	66%	64%	62%
Median Household Income (Dollars)**						$89,782	$69,177	$59,430	$54,306	$63,293
Population with bachelor’s Degree or Higher**						33%	38%	36%	46%	38%
Avg. Livability Score**						62	52	52	59	59

*Community-level descriptives collected from US Census Data Quick Facts, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts.

*Weighted average, except for PA.

Each AFC initiative represented one municipality, with the exception of one that represented two neighboring municipalities. We computed the weighted average for this initiative’s community information.

Table 2. Study participant descriptives.

			N (Range)
No. Participants			23
Average Number of Years Participated			5.09 (2–7)
Average Age			75.60 (64–92)
Gender
Female			18
Male			5
Race/Ethnicity
White			19
Black			2
Other			1
Decline			1
Household Income Range
$25,000–$75,000			5
$75,000–$125,000			8
> $125,000			6
Decline			4
Highest Education Level
Some College and College Degree			8
Graduate Degree			15
Living Arrangement
Living with Partner			18
Living Alone			5
Participant Identified Title
Volunteer			2
Advisory Committee Member			9
Advisory Committee Leader			1
Committee leader			4
Initiative Leader			7

Analytic approach

We used reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) as our guiding analytic approach. RTA offers a rigorous approach to generating complex and detailed qualitative insights by centering “researcher subjectivity, organic and recursive coding processes, and the importance of deep reflection on, and engagement with data” (Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 593). RTA is well-suited to address research questions such as ours that explore perceptions of contextualized and subjective lived experiences (Braun & Clarke, 2021b). Our analysis followed the six recursive phases of thematic analysis: (1) familiarizing with the data; (2) systematically generating codes; (3) generating initial themes; (4) reviewing themes; (5) refining, defining, and naming themes; and (6) producing the report (Braun & Clarke, 2006, Braun & Clarke, 2021a; Terry & Hayfield, 2020). In phases 1–3, the authors reviewed and coded four transcripts representing different geographies to brainstorm potential areas of analytic focus. Phases 4–5 consisted of iterative coding and theme development across three cycles, as displayed in Table 3. Theoretical frameworks regarding psychosocial well-being, civic participation, and AFC practice were incorporated in round 3 of coding to enhance the theoretical relevance of our themes. A detailed description of our coding process is presented in Appendix B.

Table 3. Illustration of coding cycles.

First cycle coding	Second cycle coding
Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
Benefits	Motivations & Benefits	Value of Engagement
Learning opportunities Staying active Substitutability of contribution Reusing skills to contribute to the community or initiative Social Network Feeling valued (or recognized, appreciated, needed) Making a difference through AFCI Uniqueness of contribution	Individualized Benefits Learning opportunities: Personal and professional growth Opportunities for staying active Generalized interest in community engagement [previous: substitutability] Self-in-Community Benefits Opportunities for reusing skills, knowledge, and experiences to contribute to the community or initiative Strengthening social networks & fostering a sense of community Feeling valued, needed, important, or heard Externalized Benefits Making a difference through AFCI	Opportunity for Social Contribution Demonstrating and reinforcing altruism to the general community and people across the lifespan through AFC. Expressing one’s commitment and passion to advance the visibility, health, and well-being of older adults across the lifespan. Feeling confident, respected, valued, and fulfilled by using or reusing skills, knowledge, experiences, and talent to improve the community. Social Connectedness and Community Integration Establishing and maintaining meaningful interpersonal relationships Integrating into the community Staying Active and Personal Growth Enjoying staying active and engaged Growing, expanding, and maturing personally

An important feature of RTA is its emphasis on centering the “researcher’s role in knowledge production” (Braun & Clarke, 2019, p. 594). Our team examined the role and influence of our subjectivity as scholars and individuals primarily through ongoing team discussions, coupled with analytic memo writing on emerging themes, ideas, and insights. We used these tools to collaboratively process and interrogate how our experiences and perspectives shaped the project, from the recruitment locations, individual sampling criteria, and the type of insights we derived from the data. Broadly, our team consisted of three gerontological social work scholars with a shared interest in multi-level interventions related to older adults and aging. All had direct experience implementing AFC initiatives in the U.S. While we all approached aging from a strengths-based perspective, each member of the research team came to this topic from a different angle, with (first author) offering expertise as a scholar of civic engagement and social isolation in later life, (second author) drawing on disciplinary knowledge of implementation science and sociological theories of aging, and (third author) offering mentorship grounded in human development and social sciences. We offer further reflection on our subjectivities and positions in Appendix C.

Results

Reflecting the influence of our collective subjectivity, our analytic process yielded three dimensions across which older participants perceived value in their AFC engagement: (1) opportunity for social contribution; (2) social connectedness and integration; and (3) engagement and personal growth. These thematic categories are not mutually exclusive; rather, they illustrate different but interconnected values that participants derived from their AFC engagement. We elaborate on each of these themes below.

Opportunity for social contribution

Our first thematic finding is that older adults value opportunities for social contribution through AFC engagement. Dimensions of social contribution spanned (a) demonstrating and reinforcing altruism across generations in the community, (b) expressing one’s commitment and passion for advancing older adults’ well-being, and (c) feeling confident, respected, and valued by drawing on their own skills, knowledge, and experiences to improve the community.

To start, participants expressed that they valued the often selfless process and outcome of contributing to the community through the AFC initiative. Some enjoyed the process of “giving” that reflected a sense of generativity. As a workgroup member in ME stated: “It’s made me feel good inside in my head that I’m able to give in that way. We give in other ways too … Mostly, I think it’s an overall feeling of being a good citizen.” Other participants took pride in seeing the positive community outcomes they contributed to. For instance, a PA-based workgroup facilitator shared that:

You can see the progress of things. Things coming together, projects proceeding, making a difference in people’s lives, in seniors’ lives. We make a difference. You can see the results in that in some of the reports that we receive and some of the feedback we’ve received from some of the people that has partaken and that has been touched by the work that we have done.

Some participants expressed their appreciation for ways in which their AFC involvement provided an opportunity to enhance the lives of people within and beyond their own socio-demographic groups (e.g., race, age). Illustratively, an AFC leader in KY below expressed their concern for the broader community beyond “a certain demographic” and their effort to contribute to the “greater good” through communication and collaboration in their AFC work.

I would hope that I would be looked at as someone who cares about everyone, not just a certain demographic. Coming from a black female, and therefore a minority, as I have become friends, I have a pretty wide range of friends, and not all look like me … I would hope that as a whole, people would listen to what I’m saying and watch what I’m doing and realize that it is for the greater good and not just one small segment of the population…

Similarly, despite the emphasis on aging and older adults in AFC initiatives, some participants particularly valued the opportunity to benefit everyone across the lifespan. As an AFC leader in KY stated, “There are things that I truly, truly enjoy and they are important to me … We want [Community] to be as good for an 8-year-old as it is for an 80-year-old.” A workgroup facilitator in ME also stated that they enjoy AFC engagement because it is “not just for older people but for the whole community.” To advance the interest and well-being of the “whole community,” participants addressed a variety of community challenges, such as transportation and food security. For instance, a member of the AFC leadership team in KY elaborated below on their commitment to improve the housing situation for various populations in need:

There were efforts to get people for or against [Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)] to speak to [local municipal leadership]. I did a couple of those where I have my three minutes, and I would present it. Usually, I combined the reason, the positives for ADUs, not only for the elderly, and to make it more livable for people to have affordable housing, but also because of people with disabilities.

In contrast with some participants’ interest in serving the general community and people across the lifespan, other participants regarded AFC engagement as an opportunity to concentrate on older adults. As an AFC leader from NJ stated: “I think, what we value, is the continual focus on senior issues because they can easily be brushed aside.”

Some AFC participants viewed AFC engagement as a natural extension of their ongoing advocacy for older adults. For instance, one AFC advisory committee member in ME shared that they “work on age-friendly issues all over the place” through political advocacy. AFC engagement facilitated participants’ efforts to improve older adults’ health, access to medical appointments, and retirement savings within and beyond the local community. As the committee member in ME explained:

Age-Friendly, there are, as I pointed out, many people, not only in this town but in towns throughout the state of Maine that have real problems. How do you, when you’re alone, or even if you’re a couple, be set by medical issues? How do you find a way to stay in your home and have a quality of life? These are issues that have not been addressed by a state or by the nation until recently … Allocating time to Age-Friendly issues helps to keep it in front and the state as you can see by the laws I mentioned [to] you before.

Furthermore, differing from the generativity to serve the general community, advocating for older adults was not only an act of altruism but also an outlet for self-advocacy. As the following AFC leader from NJ further explained below, AFC engagement challenges ageist stereotypes and allows older adults to have an impact on issues influencing their lives.

[The AFC Initiative] gives seniors respect. Seniors are not cute, they’re not adorable. They’re people, you know. And the fact that we have this piece in this our community that does a lot of important things, accomplishes a lot of important things, is very, very helpful, you know. It helps to give you the kind of recognition that you deserve. And the ability to an impact, you know.

Finally, participants discussed AFC engagement as a meaningful way to apply their skills, knowledge, and experiences in their community, such as community organizing, healthcare, and accounting, for the betterment of their communities. Participants reflected on how they engaged with the AFC initiatives in ways that aligned with their lifelong skills and knowledge. An AFC leader in ME below discussed how being involved in the AFC initiative was congruent with their previous experiences as an educator:

The same as when I was at work, I was chair of the senior college. I really believed in that from an educational point of view, and it was good to put in courses that interested me and that I thought would interest other people. It draws on my background as a teacher.

Despite having the desire, opportunity, support, and skills, the process of contributing to the community by implementing the AFC initiative still came with its challenges. One AFC leader in NJ articulated the stress of relying on volunteers to generate and sustain much-needed community impact: “Some volunteers only come when they feel like it. Some volunteers only come when it’s convenient. Some volunteers don’t find a replacement … But, if I’m not here, we still have to have this, this outreach and you know, it has to be paid.” Similarly, an AFC leader in an under-resourced area of ME expressed a sense of being overwhelmed in addressing multiple community needs (e.g., food security, social connectedness) locally with staff member shortages:

I’m a little bit too involved … As the pandemic hit, the food program needed to expand to reach more households and of course, now it’s all delivery, nobody’s getting together to do anything. Her [the creator of the food program] program started eating her life and she had to step back from this. So for the time being, I’m doing this. The Social Isolation Committee was headed by a physician on our board, nice lady … she had a major stroke two weeks ago … That is serious and so I’m doing the social isolation stuff until we figure out what to do next. Then my vice-chair, who’s also my treasurer, and the chair of the Transportation Committee, her husband had surgery yesterday … she has some issues of her own … So I’m doing some of her job …

In addition to the challenges in the process of making community changes, the impact of bottom-up AFC initiatives had its unique strengths and limitations. For instance, a workgroup member in ME acknowledged the increasing social influence the AFC has gained as a group while recognizing its limited power in generating policy change.

…Not somebody somewhere in some high-class office making decisions but going right to the source. Like you’re doing to get your information firsthand, and then you have all your academics, of course, before, and then see what’s happening … I would say the [AFC initiative is] a group that’s going to grow in power. We don’t have a lot of power where we can make recommendations. We’re not the people in the power to make the change happen.

Social connectedness and integration

The second theme we identified is that older participants value the social connectedness developed or enhanced through their AFC engagement. Participants appreciated the ways in which the AFC initiatives provided opportunities for interpersonal connectedness as well as a sense of embeddedness in the community.

At the interpersonal level, many participants reported building and maintaining satisfying relationships with other people through their AFC engagement. In this sense, they valued the initiative as a “social outlet” and a way to expand their social networks. As a chair of an initiative in ME stated, “I would say that that committee serves as a primary means of socialization for many of us.” For some participants, the AFC initiative was their only activity outside of their household. For instance, an AFC volunteer in NJ shared that the AFC initiative provided them with important social connections while benefiting the community.

It’s the only thing I’m involved in at the moment, except for watching my grandson. I mean, you know, when my children were younger, that’s when I wore a lot of different hats. As you get older, there’s maybe one or two hats. And really the only hat is babysitter, and you know, being involved with [AFC initiative] … yes, it’s helping, trying to help people bring information to them, but it’s also selfish because, you know, myself and a few of the people that I know, we get to see each other, in a more relaxed area and catch up and stuff like that.

For other participants, the social connections within AFC initiatives were not the only connections that mattered to them. A member of the AFC leadership team in KY explained that their focus on two specific community engagement opportunities allowed them to make time for other important social interactions: “Between [Senior Living Facility] and the [Aging-Related Public Sector Committee], that really does it for me. Then I have other aspects. My husband’s retired now too, so we spend time together.”

Additionally, the opportunity to work with “like-minded” people also made engagement enjoyable and fostered friendships. A chair of an initiative in ME stated: “Those people have become a nucleus in our lives, of like-minded friends doing this work together.” A PA-based AFC volunteer further described the AFC teamwork as “psychic dollars” and compared it to collaborative efforts they have always enjoyed.

It’s exact same thing with Age-Friendly, you do your work, and then you celebrate your work. There’s something that goes beyond age, young people, old people all get together to do something physical together, and then sit and celebrate what they’ve done … I guess it goes back to the cavemen where they had to work together to survive, and it’s just something maybe hardwired in our psyche that there’s nothing better than a group of people getting together to do something constructive, and then celebrate when they’re done.

Participants further described reciprocated support for one another as part of an AFC team as an important aspect of positive interactions through age-friendly engagement, as the quote from an AFC chair in ME demonstrates:

Because of the relationship of our committee as a whole, if somebody needs to take a break or has a need to because of illness or whatever, we’re flexible enough, support each other, and we make that work. Somebody steps in to take over. We’ve only had that happen once, but it was seamless when it happened. It was very seamless.

Notably, even when experiencing aging and health-related challenges, older participants were still invigorated by forming intergenerational relationships through AFC efforts, as an AFC leader from KY shared:

As we cross generations and just have conversations with each other, it’s keeping everybody emotionally, mentally, physically fit. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have ailments. My knee might hurt, my back might hurt, but we keep going.

In addition to interpersonal connectedness, AFC engagement also provided participants with opportunities to connect with the broader community by expanding their social network. As a workgroup facilitator in ME explained:

I was interested in getting involved in [AFC initiative] because I wanted to expand my community. I’ve lived here for a few years now, but my community was mostly my church and then I was doing artwork and I had an art community. I wanted to expand. I didn’t know the city all that well and so I thought this would be a good way to do that.

Integrating into the local community was particularly meaningful for newly widowed participants and those who recently moved to the community. A member of the leadership team in ME below gave an example of how being a member of the AFC committee helped them integrate into ME after moving from another state.

My experience having come from a big city, and now I’m a country mouse “has been”… I was real hesitant when I first moved up here to open my mouth because everybody would know I was from away. He [local AFC advocate] immediately picked up on that and he said, “Where are you from?” I said, “I’ve come from [other state].” … He said, “New Englanders are known for being standoffish. What do you think?” I said, “I don’t know, you’re talking to me, aren’t you?” That sums up what I think about Maine. Particularly once they know that you’re here, that you’re going to make your life here, they have a way of wrapping their arms around you and pulling you in. That’s what happened to me and the committee has made that – I’ve become very aware of that because of the committee.

Staying active and personal growth

The final theme reflects older adults’ appreciation for the opportunity to stay active and grow personally through the AFC initiative. Participants expressed how the AFC initiative helped them to stay active throughout later life while expanding their perspectives. As one advisory committee member in NJ shared: “You gotta keep moving to keep moving. You can’t sit around.” Participants enjoyed staying physically, mentally, socially, and cognitively engaged through various activities in AFC initiatives. For example, a workgroup facilitator in ME described staying active cognitively:

I enjoy organization, love thinking through and planning and that’s part of why I enjoy being at the ops team meetings because that’s a good chance for the brain to be working and putting out ideas and listening to what’s out there and how it might work.

Other participants elaborated on the “fun” of staying active through their engagement. When asked about what makes AFC engagement valuable to them, an AFC leader in ME described their engagement as part of their good retirement among other activities:

This whole idea of inclusiveness and getting people to the table, and then dealing with the negativity that happens … It all makes sense to me. I feel like I am having a lot of fun in my retirement. We just got back. My husband and I biked to yoga this morning. We did yoga and then we biked back. We have eBikes now. I try to balance that but having – Of course, we had a parade on Saturday. He ended up walking in the parade with me because that’s what the community needs to see, the aging-in-place people.

Beyond staying active and engaged, participants also highlighted a sense of ongoing growth, learning, and expansion as “a life-long learner,” a term from a KY-based AFC volunteer. Personal growth refers to the expansion in perspectives, skills, and knowledge – a benefit that many participants addressed upon reflection. Some participants described gaining new skills and knowledge that are beneficial to their professional responsibility within and beyond AFC engagement, such as improving digital literacy or gaining new ideas for AFC best practices. The following quote from a leader in ME is an example of learning new skills with the support of the AFC initiative:

We have really good conversations. We have guest speakers, we have webinars, and it’s a support group. If I’m wondering about how to do a certain thing, what was the last one? Well, certainly a big challenge for my group, or a big focus for us has been how to better engage the community members. There’s one community in the state that does that pretty well. I set up a pretty long phone conversation with that leader just to give me some tips. That was really helpful on all that. We all do it several times over. Somebody will say, “I want to do a mailing, how did you do this or that?” It’s very, very helpful.

Participants also enjoyed exploring new ways of bringing their professional interests to the next level. When asked about why they became involved with the AFC, a member of the AFC leadership team in KY explained: “Oh, because I felt like I had this body of information, knew I was going to be retiring, and saw it as a mechanism for doing something I’m very passionate about and expanding that role.” The above member of the KY leadership team elaborated below on how the AFC leadership encouraged them to make an impact on larger platforms:

I always had opinions about things, but I never sort of made use of them in a public forum. [Contact 1], who is this amazing person who is employed by the city, but she was the original person to start the [Aging-Focused Public Sector Committee] or to chair it … She keeps luring me into new worlds like today.

Besides learning new skills and knowledge, participants also enjoyed broadening their personal perspectives on life. As a PA-based committee leader shared: “I know it has expanded my horizons.” Several participants discussed “more awareness” regarding the accessibility of public spaces (e.g., post-office, parking lot) within their communities. Other participants discussed increased sensitivity to the needs and experiences of people beyond their immediate social network. For example, an ME-based workgroup member described increasing their awareness of ageism by serving on the AFC committee:

I think in our personal lives, being part of the committee has made me much more aware of prejudices, not just on age but on other human being issues here in our own country in our own state … I think part of our mission, and mine anyway, is that if I hear something that doesn’t sound right, I’m certainly one who would speak up.

Discussion

Despite a longstanding emphasis within age-friendly discourse on involving older adults in AFC work (Menec, 2017; WHO, 2007), this is one of the first empirical studies, to our knowledge, to explicitly investigate the perceived value of engagement among older adults who are involved in the implementation of initiatives. As displayed in Figure 1, our findings suggest that older adults engaging in AFC work describe three different but related loci of value, including opportunities for (a) social contribution, (b) social connectedness/integration, and (c) staying active and personal growth.

Figure 1. Visualization of themes.

Our findings highlight the importance of integrating theoretical insights from social scientific frameworks within and beyond the aging literature to enhance understanding of older adults’ AFC engagement. Drawing on our team’s analytic prism grounded in theories of civic engagement, human development, and community practice, we situate our findings in Menec’s conceptualization of social connectedness in AFC initiatives (Menec, 2017), eudaimonic well-being (Ryff, 1989, 2018; Ryff & Keyes, 1995), and social movement theory (Castelloe & Prokopy, 2001). To start, our findings support the conceptual framework on social connectedness in AFC efforts (Menec, 2017) by illustrating how AFC initiatives can amplify older adults’ social influence, create social connections, and empower older adults. Results further suggest that older participants establish and strengthen a sense of community by creating connections through the collaborative implementation of AFC initiatives. Participants also elevate their social influence as a group by actively addressing local concerns. However, contrasting with Menec’s conceptual framework, few participants discussed broadening access to services/resources through their AFC engagement. One interpretation as to why is that our study sample consisted mainly of well-resourced older professionals who likely were already well-connected to resources and services.

Moreover, our findings indicated that AFC engagement can enhance older participants’ eudaimonic well-being (Ryff, 1989, 2018; Ryff & Keyes, 1995). Differing from hedonic well-being that underscores the optimization of positive affect and life satisfaction alongside minimization of negative affect, eudaimonic well-being centers on making an effort for personal growth, expansion, maturity, and meaning-making through self-reflection and interactions with other people and the broader community (Keyes, 1998; Ryff, 1989, 2018; Ryff & Keyes, 1995). In the AFC context, older participants enjoyed expanding themselves by contributing to worthy social causes while interacting with different people and the community. Situating eudaimonic well-being within the AFC connectivity framework (Menec, 2017), our findings imply that AFC engagement synchronized social contribution, social connectedness, and personal growth in enhancing participants’ eudaimonic well-being. Making a difference through AFC initiatives generates opportunities to connect with individuals and organizations in one’s community (Menec, 2017). Enhancing community embeddedness, in turn, reinforces participants’ desire and capacity to contribute to collective well-being locally (Menec, 2017). Furthermore, actively engaging in community betterment as a group emerged as a means of enriching AFC participants’ lived experiences with information, activities, perspectives, and connectedness.

Additionally, our findings can be theoretically situated in social movement theory, which has developed largely outside of gerontological research to date. Of relevance are the concepts of collective and selective benefits – benefits that all members of a community experience from a social change effort versus benefits experienced only by those engaged in the movement/initiative, respectively (Castelloe & Prokopy, 2001). In the AFC context, collective benefits or value can be seen as the communal-level benefits spanning the built, social, and service environments, such as more accessible public buildings or increased community awareness of aging and older adults. In contrast, this study focused on dimensions of the selective value of AFC engagement among older participants. Subtypes of selective benefits include solidarity, as well as expressive and material benefits (Castelloe & Prokopy, 2001). In our study, solidarity benefits are reflected by the theme regarding social interaction and community integration, suggesting that older AFC participants experienced a sense of solidarity with other community members and older adults. Some participants also appreciated the expressive value of engagement (Castelloe & Prokopy, 2001) by demonstrating their political and civic intentions through advocacy and self-advocacy in AFC initiatives. Material benefits were hardly mentioned by AFC participants because few were paid for their engagement. However, some participants in AFC leadership positions and in under-resourced communities stressed the importance of material support in sustaining engagement.

The above theoretical insights have important implications for policy and practice. Practitioners and policymakers can promote engagement in AFC initiatives as an important platform for civic engagement among older adults beyond traditional volunteering and overtly political participation. Similar to the benefits of the well-established forms of civic engagement, AFC engagement also can provide an outlet for social contribution, integration, meaningful activity, and personal growth. Moreover, AFC initiatives uniquely integrate a variety of engagement opportunities ranging from nonpolitical to overtly political activities (Serrat et al., 2020, 2023). Compared with traditional volunteering programs usually emphasizing one-on-one direct service, AFC initiatives provide opportunities for older participants to influence local policies and practices and engage in place-making in their communities as a group. To elevate potential participants’ interest in AFC engagement, practitioners can strategically inquire them about their vision for the community, interest in strengthening social networks, and passion for life enrichment. AFC initiatives can also be organized intentionally to maximize the above psychosocial values to retain participants. Although more studies are needed, our findings have potential implications for recruiting and retaining older adults in AFCs. Publicizing and celebrating the contributions of existing AFC volunteers while highlighting the opportunity to make local impacts may attract volunteers looking to make a difference in their communities. Because participants valued social connectedness with others and their communities, fostering and sustaining connections around AFC’s goal and mission may elevate its appeal to older adults. Additionally, diversifying volunteer roles and activities while managing workload might better meet older adults’ desire for staying active and personal growth.

Limitations and directions for future research

Two key limitations of this study relate to the geographic and demographic composition represented in our sample. While spanning four states and 15 unique AFC initiatives, this sample is unable to address the diversity of experiences of AFC engagement among older adults in other geographic locations with differing resources and infrastructure, such as large metropolitan areas. Relatedly, even as our study draws on one AFC-dense state (ME), there is a notable lack of representation from other high-density AFC locations in the U.S. (e.g., California and Oregon). Additionally, the notably distinct regions in the southwestern and southern parts of the U.S. with high concentrations of older adults and/or AFCs (e.g., Arizona, Florida, and Georgia) were not represented in this study. In terms of participant demographics, our sample, with a majority of white females with a college education, constrains the transferability of our findings to the AFC engagement experiences of older adults with more diverse identities and lived experiences (Reyes, 2022). In light of this study’s sample of predominantly highly educated older professionals, the strengths and limitations of AFC initiatives in meeting the civic engagement needs of various groups of older adults should be further evaluated. Future research and programming should also further examine how structural factors (e.g., funding, and governmental support) contribute to the psychosocial benefits of AFC engagement in a variety of communities.

Moreover, although it was not the major focus of our study, findings reflected some challenges of engaging in AFC implementation. Specifically, the sense of overwhelm expressed by a few participants in leadership positions is consistent with the existing literature that identified “volunteer burnout” as a major threat to AFC sustainability, and the broader critique of volunteer-based AFC implementation that places the responsibility for social change on those with the least resources (Menec, 2017; Menec & Brown, 2022; Russell et al., 2022). Our findings also implied that implementing AFC initiatives can be particularly stressful for older participants in smaller communities with limited volunteers and resources (Colibaba et al., 2020), such as some rural communities in ME featured in this study. Future studies should further investigate older adults’ challenges in implementing AFC initiatives in a variety of under-resourced communities. Further, we encourage future studies to differentiate older participants’ motivation for and benefit from their AFC engagement to bring greater nuance to the variation in the value of AFC engagement that older adults derive across the different facets of AFC development and implementation (e.g., recruitment, implementation, and multi-level outcomes).

Conclusion

Results from our study emphasize the psychosocial value of AFC engagement among older adult participants. More specifically, findings suggest that opportunities to contribute to worthy community causes, to develop and maintain meaningful connections, and to enrich one’s life through engagement and growth in the context of one’s local community are common dimensions of value that older adults derive from their engagement in AFC initiatives. Continuing to advance research on the development and implementation of AFC initiatives, particularly from the perspectives of older adults who are involved across a variety of capacities, remains an important area of inquiry with implications for both theory and practice.

Acknowledgments

We thank David Stern SSW ’72, alumnus of the Rutgers University School of Social Work, for his gift that helped to support this project. We also are deeply grateful to all the committed and passionate individuals who participated in this study. Your dedication to making an age-friendly impact in your communities is inspiring, and we are grateful to have the privilege of seeing but a small window into your experience. We thank the community advocates and leaders who activated their social networks to help with the recruitment for this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/01634372.2024.2339971

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the We thank David Stern SSW ’72, alumnus of the Rutgers University School of Social Work, for his gift that helped to support this project. [NA].