Background: As the older adult population increases, it is imperative to increase older adults' opportunities for social involvement, thus maintaining their important roles and contributions to society. While there are known health-related benefits of volunteerism among older adults, a dearth of information exists on the perceived benefits of volunteerism among low-income and ethnic minority older adults. Purpose: To understand the perceived psychosocial benefits of volunteering in the Senior Companion Program and to present findings of focus groups conducted with urban-dwelling, low-income older adult women volunteers. Design and Methods: Inductive content analysis and the Dedoose qualitative data analysis software were used for analyzing data obtained from 59 older adult women Senior Companions who participated in nine focus groups. Results: Content analyses of the focus group transcripts identified four major themes: (1) Reducing social isolation; (2) Improving quality of life; (3) Finding purpose and meaning; and (4) Increasing understanding of aging. The majority of our participants (81%) were African American women, with a mean age of 70 years. Approximately 83.1% had completed high school and 62.7% lived below the poverty line. Discussion and Implications: Findings provided data rich in descriptions of positive psychosocial outcomes, finding meaning and purpose, and a better understanding of aging in urban-dwelling, low-income older women volunteers. The findings also provide support for the need for policies and programs that promote civic engagement in this population.

Introduction: Having meaning and purpose in life is an important feature of mental health, however, finding meaning and purpose may become more challenging for older adults, due to declining function and increasing losses (e.g., widowhood, retirement). Yet, meaning and purpose in life has shown a strong association with social integration and with relational quality in particular. High levels of meaning and purpose have been associated with better health, higher daily competence, higher socioeconomic status, being employed, and being married. In addition, high levels of reported meaning and purpose in life has been associated with better health, psychological well-being, and lower levels of depression symptoms, and better sleep in older adults. Volunteering as a source of purpose in life has been reported in several studies. The Senior Companion Program (SCP) has been recognized as an important program that helps to bridge the gaps of geriatric care by meeting the non-medical needs of community dwelling older adults. SCP is a program supported by the Corporation for National and Community Service an independent, federal grant-making government agency whose mission is to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic participation through service and volunteering.

Engagement and Quality of Life in Under–represented Older Adults: A Community–Based Participatory Research Project Ellen R. Brown, Yvonne Lu, Joyce Beaven, Hugh C. Hendrie, Karen Hanson, Carly A. Carvell, and Mary G. Austrom Community–based Participatory Research (CBPR) is defined as a collaborative approach to research that involves all partners equally in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each partner brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving some kind of change in the community partner’s program and certainly improves knowledge for the academic partner. In addition, commonly acknowledged benefits of CBPR to the academic and researchers include an increased investment in and commitment to the research process by the study participants and facilitated participant recruitment and retention. Benefits for the community partner include assuming the role of “partner” rather than “subject”, and having a voice in both setting the study objectives and the design of the project, thus ensuring respect for the culture and goals of the community. Both partners gain from the increased likelihood that the project will be successfully completed. The CBPR model was used to guide our collaborative research project, entitled “Engagement and Quality of Life in Underrepresented Older Adults” at Indiana University with our community partner, Catholic Charities Indianapolis and their Senior Companions Program (SCP). The Corporation for National and Community Service is the Federal agency that administers SCP nationally and is the major funding source for this program. As the elderly population increases so does interest in ensuring their health and function. The SCP, a volunteer based program of seniors providing companionship to vulnerable community dwelling elders is an excellent example of civic engagement. CBPR is especially relevant in research with underrepresented groups (URG) because the community partner is typically integrated well within the URG. The SCP recruits, trains, supports and matches volunteers aged 55 and older with frail adults in need of support and companionship. SC provide support and touch the lives of adults needing extra assistance to live independently in their homes. SC serve frail older adults, adults with disabilities, those with terminal illnesses and their presence offers respite to family caregivers at no cost to the clients or caregivers. Our CPBR project was designed to determine elements of wellbeing, physical health and quality of life in the minority elderly participating in the SCP. Understanding the Senior Companion (SC) role and the impact of the SC on the client and, conversely, the client’s impact on the SC has provided valuable information and insight on the effect of meaningful engagement on minority elderly. 60 SC participated in one of 9 focus groups designed to learn more about how the SCP impacts their quality of life as well as that of their clients. SC shared rich stories and examples of how the SCP keeps them motivated, distracts from their own problems as they help clients in need. While our project was designed to understand the elements of participating in the SCP that contribute to and improve quality of life for both the Senior Companions and their clients, the nature of the relationship among the members of the research team, the academic and community partners, is crucial to the success of our work. Fundamentally, CBPR succeeds when community–academic partners share equal responsibility for the project. While we certainly agree that these elements of CBPR described above are important, we found that the following qualities in our team and working closely together to meet [End Page E7] the requirements to complete the project have been critical to the success of our research: Positive Partnership Experience Mutually respectful relationship among the partners and long–standing collaboration existed prior to the initiation of the CBPR. The community–academic partner co–leads undertook the CBPR with a strong foundation of mutual respect and trust built upon a respectful, professional relationship spanning two decades. An essential element of the collaboration was that both partners wanted to learn more about the SCP and what makes it work so well. The community partner knew that rather than collecting data for purely research purposes, they would gain useful information about...