ACL VOLUNTEERISM STUDY | AUGUST 2021

Volunteer Stories 

Brief

Insights from 

ACL Programs
ii | 

This volunteer stories brief was prepared by the Office of 

Performance and Evaluation (OPE), Center for Policy and 

Evaluation, Administration for Community Living (ACL), 

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 

in partnership with New Editions Consulting, Inc., under 

contract number HHSP233201500113I/HHSP23337002T. 

Abbreviations and Acronyms

ACL Administration for Community Living

ADPI Alzheimer’s Disease Program Initiative

LTCOP Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program

NWD No Wrong Door system

OAA Older Americans Act

SHIP State Health Insurance Assistance Program 
Volunteer Stories Brief | 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What Is the Purpose of This Brief? 2

What Are Some of the ACL Programs That Rely on Volunteers? 2

State Health Insurance Assistance Program 3

Older American Act Programs 3

No Wrong Door System 3

Alzheimer’s Disease Program Initiative 3

What Roles Do Volunteers Fill in Delivering ACL Program Services? 4

How Important Are Volunteers for ACL’s Programs? 5

How Do the Programs, Communities, and Clients 

Benefit From Volunteers? 7

What Is the Benefit of Volunteering to Volunteers? 9

What Do Volunteers Say About Their Experience? 10

References 12
2 | 

What Is the Purpose 

of This Brief?

This brief was created as part of the Administration for Community Living (ACL) Volunteerism 

Study project, sponsored by ACL’s Office of Performance and Evaluation.1

 Its purpose is to tell 

the story of volunteerism in ACL programs in the words of ACL program stakeholders: staff, 

grantees, and volunteers. Based on the insights shared in interviews with 38 stakeholders,2

this brief highlights the role and importance of volunteers3

 for delivering ACL program services to older adults and people with disabilities, the benefits of volunteering to recipients 

and volunteers, and the experiences of volunteers contributing to ACL-funded programs.

1 ACL Volunteerism Study was conducted by New Editions Consulting, Inc., under ACL/Office of Performance and Evaluation Analytic Support 

Contract HHSP23337002T.

2 Details about the study methods and additional findings can be found the Final Study Report and Effective Volunteer Practices Guide, 

posted on the ACL website: https://acl.gov/programs/program-evaluations-and-reports

3 For the purpose of this study, volunteer work refers to unpaid noncompulsory work—that is, time individuals give without pay to activities 

performed through an organization outside their own household (International Labour Office, 2011).

delivery of the services also depends on the efforts of 

unpaid volunteers. For example, in 2019, volunteers 

contributed about 28.2% of the total annual labor for 

the SHIP, 56% of the total annual labor for OAA Title 

III area agencies on aging, and about 15.9% of the 

total certified ombudsmen annual labor for the LTCOP. 

Because funding is limited, without volunteers, many, 

tribal, state, and local services providers would not be 

able to provide nearly as many services nor reach as 

many individuals in the community as they currently do. 

The information below provides a brief description of 

some of the ACL programs that rely on volunteers.

As Americans age, many may think about how they can 

remain independent in their homes for as long as possible and whether they will be able to access services 

that help them maintain their health and well-being. 

Federally funded programs like the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP), the Older Americans 

Act (OAA) programs, the No Wrong Door (NWD) System, 

and the Alzheimer’s Disease Program Initiative (ADPI) 

were created to address these needs. Comprehensive 

local networks (e.g., aging and disability network) have 

been created to deliver these programs to communities, 

individuals and their family members. However, the 

What Are Some of the ACL Programs 

That Rely on Volunteers?
Volunteer Stories Brief | 3

STATE HEALTH INSURANCE 

ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The SHIP was created to assist Medicare-eligible 

individuals in obtaining coverage through Original 

Medicare (Parts A & B), Medicare Advantage (Part C), 

Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage (Part D), and 

Medicare Supplement (Medigap). SHIP also assists 

beneficiaries with limited income to apply for programs such as Medicaid, or the Medicare Savings 

Program and Extra Help/Low Income Subsidy, which 

help to reduce out-of-pocket payments for healthcare 

services (ACL, n.d.-a).

OLDER AMERICAN ACT 

PROGRAMS

The OAA funds programs that provide essential services to older adults (i.e., generally those age 60 and 

older), targeting those with the greatest unmet needs, 

particularly older adults who live in low-income households, have limited English proficiency, or who live 

in rural areas. The OAA also targets American Indians 

and minority older individuals. Services funded by 

OAA programs include home-delivered and congregate 

meals; family caregiver support; in-home assistance; 

health promotion and disease prevention; transportation; job training; and legal services and promotion 

and protection of the health safety, welfare, and rights 

of long-term care facility residents (ACL, n.d.-b). 

NO WRONG DOOR SYSTEM

The NWD System represents a collaborative effort of 

ACL, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 

and the Veterans Health Administration to support 

state efforts to streamline access to long-term services 

and supports for individuals and their families. In a 

“No Wrong Door” system, multiple agencies retain 

responsibility for their respective services while coordinating with each other to integrate access to those 

services through a single, standardized process that is 

administered and overseen by a state-led coordinating 

entity. The NWD system serves as a network of community-based organizations and state agencies streamlining access functions for all populations through 

governance, coordination of key referral sources, 

person-centered counseling, and streamlined eligibility, including those funded under Medicaid, the OAA, 

the Veterans Health Administration, and state revenue 

programs (ACL, n.d.-c)

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE 

PROGRAM INITIATIVE 

The ADPI was created to help develop and expand 

the availability of dementia-capable supports and 

services for persons with Alzheimer’s disease and 

related dementias, their families, and their caregivers. 

Funded programs bring dementia capability to the 

communities they serve through expansion of existing 

home and community-based service systems. ADPI 

programs include dementia-capable direct services 

and supports, translation and implementation of 

evidence-based interventions designed to improve the 

lives of persons with dementia and their caregivers, 

as well as dementia-specific training for formal and 

informal caregivers.
4 | 

volunteers in the programs they manage or the 

programs to which they contribute. Stakeholders 

provided the following examples of what 

volunteers do:

What Roles Do Volunteers Fill 

in Delivering ACL Program Services? 

As noted, volunteers play an essential role in delivering services for these ACL programs. To learn more 

about what volunteers do to support these programs, 

we asked stakeholders to talk about the roles of 

SHIP volunteers ...

■ conduct outreach to Medicare beneficiaries 

to provide education, answer questions, 

troubleshoot, and assist with enrollment.

■ provide one-to-one assistance to assess 

client health services needs and match 

them with health plans.

■ give public presentations at education or 

training events.

■ recruit and train new team members.

OAA program volunteers ...

■ deliver meals to individuals’ homes and 

serve food at congregate meal sites.

■ teach health promotion and disease 

prevention classes.

■ organize activities in senior centers.

■ support family caregivers.

■ provide transportation assistance.

■ provide legal assistance.

■ assist tribal members with transportation, 

meals, socializing, and home repairs.

■ visit long-term care facility to help meet 

residents’ needs, educate residents about 

their rights, and help solve problems to 

address resident complaints.

ADPI volunteers ...

■ act as conduits to the community to help 

identify individuals with dementia and 

encourage them to get diagnosed.

■ support activities in libraries, such as 

setting up music or memory programs.

■ train home-delivered meal drivers to 

recognize individuals experiencing cognitive decline.

■ run support groups and educational workshops.

■ provide respite relief and emotional 

support to caregivers.

■ provide one-to-one engagement and 

socialization to help reduce isolation and 

loneliness.

■ provide excursions for people with dementia and their caregivers.

NWD volunteers ...

■ may serve on leadership teams, representing consumer stakeholders and making 

sure that the consumer voice is included

■ coordinate information referrals, including 

conducting outreach and answering 

information referral calls

■ support person-centered counseling, 

including one to one engagement with 

individuals and families.

■ support activities to prevent social isolation, such as writing letters and cards, 

conducting outreach calls, and providing 

support and connecting clients to services.
Volunteer Stories Brief | 5

How Important Are Volunteers 

for ACL’s Programs?

Based on the volunteer roles listed above, we know 

that volunteers are critical for ACL programs. But how 

essential are volunteers, and could the programs 

succeed without them? When asked these questions, 

ACL staff shared the following insights:

Tribes rely on volunteers to fill in the gaps when programs do not have adequate staff. Title VI funds may 

not be enough to support our programs without volunteer help. We literally couldn’t get along without them. 

 —ACL Director of the Office for American Indian, 

 Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian Programs

In some states or local jurisdictions, volunteers 

are running their nutrition program. All the stuff 

you would expect a paid staff to do, the volunteers are doing. 

 —ACL Director of the Office of Nutrition 

 and Health Promotion Programs

Senior centers are so reliant on volunteers, and they’re so important to the aging network. And a lot of the congregate meals happen 

in these centers, and they’re relying on the volunteers to help with 

those. The home-delivered meals also wouldn’t be delivered without 

the large number of volunteers that are involved. Even transportation: 

you’ve got volunteers helping to provide transportation, and that’s so 

important for older adults. —ACL Regional Administrator

Volunteers are basically the building block 

all OAA programs operate on. I just know 

that volunteers are essential workers to the 

network. They make a difference, and we 

couldn’t survive without volunteers as 

a national aging network at this time. 

 —ACL Regional Administrator
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There may be one or two paid staff, but the rest are volunteers who give their time [for senior centers or in adult day 

programs]. The entertainment that comes in, the singing 

groups, and arts and crafts—a lot of that is largely volunteer 

and really allows a program to offer a range of opportunities 

and activities that wouldn’t be possible if you had to pay 

somebody to have on staff. So when we say that the aging 

services network is heavily volunteer based, that’s absolutely 

true, but in turn those volunteers and the volunteer hours 

are used by programs as in-kind match, so there is a dollar 

value to them. 

 —Director, ACL Office of Supportive 

 and Caregiver Services

The use of volunteers for our programs is 

essential. Across the board with our programs, 

there just isn’t enough funding to go around to 

support the work that needs to be done. If we 

did not have volunteers, we would be reaching 

only half of what we’re currently reaching. 

Volunteers are committed individuals that 

are able to provide services to, in my case, 

Medicare beneficiaries at the local level, in 

their own communities. They are able to bring 

the local perspective of what’s happening in 

their communities. 

 —ACL Director of the Office of 

 Health Information Counseling

Volunteers play a huge role in our 

programs. Many of our grantees 

actually use their volunteers as part 

of their match for their funding. 

Programs that are utilizing volunteers, for them it’s a method of 

sustaining a lot of the work that we 

fund. So, it’s a very important 

component. 

 —Lead for ACL’s Alzheimer’s 

 and Dementia Initiative
Volunteer Stories Brief | 7

Volunteers ...

■ enhance programs’ capacity to serve clients and respond to the needs of the community (e.g., increased

service offerings, expanded hours of operation, faster response times, shorter wait times).

■ know their communities and the clients, and are able to contribute local knowledge and better identify and

respond to community needs.

■ may be better able to connect with hard-to-reach individuals or groups (e.g., rural populations, tribal elders,

non-English-speaking individuals, persons living in long-term care facilities).

■ bring diverse skill sets, including language skills, professional expertise, and avocations such as playing

musical instruments, dancing, painting, woodworking, and other crafts.

■ are able to spend more time with clients and can identify mental and physical health risks which can be

addressed by ACL programs. They can be highly present when interacting with individual clients. This

provides an opportunity for clients to have meaningful social interaction and to feel seen and heard;

volunteers likely have less time pressure and other work-related pressures than paid staff.

■ are peers (rather than professionals) with whom clients may be able to better identify and connect, which

may enhance clients’ willingness to participate and engage.

As the quotes from ACL staff members illustrate, volunteers have the potential to provide real tangible benefits 

to programs and clients. Some of these benefits might 

be lost if programs relied exclusively on paid staff. 

How Do the Programs, Communities, 

and Clients Benefit From Volunteers?

When asked about the specific benefits of volunteers 

to programs, communities, and clients, stakeholders 

highlighted the following key themes:

Volunteers may be retired professionals with 

bacground in medicide or law, for example. 

I could never hire a this type of expert, who 

donates their time to proivde their expertise 

in training and technical assistance. We don’t 

have those kind of resources financially to 

pay them. 

 —Executive Director, LTCOP of San Luis 

 Obispo County, California

What volunteers bring are skill sets. 

They bring different things that they 

can educate each other on, and they 

can educate other people. 

—SHIP Volunteer
8 | 

Those local volunteers have an understanding of what pharmacies 

are available. Through their work with beneficiaries, volunteers 

may know if a particular pharmacy is difficult or good to work with 

and are able to provide more complex, in-depth assistance to beneficiaries trying to navigate something like a pharmacy network. 

The 1-800-Medicare national level call center would never be able 

to do that. They don’t have the time to do that, nor would they 

have the knowledge or skills. And so, that’s a real key piece of my 

mind, the value of the volunteers and the local network of volunteers. They really know the folks in their community and the local 

issues that are going on that may impact the decisions or how 

they’re able to access the benefits. 

 —ACL Director of the Office of Health Information Counseling

Essentially, we're force multipliers or 

we're extenders: we're additional people, 

eyes, hands, hearts that can go out and 

connect with a resident during times that 

Ombudsman program staff is occupied. 

With maybe more serious cases, like 

financial or physical abuse, but at the 

same time, there are hundreds of residents in other facilities who, just because 

they don't have a dire need, don't get on 

the radar. So, having volunteers available 

to go out—even if it's just a walkthrough 

and say, you know, “hi, how you doing”—

is valuable. 

 —OAA LTCOP Volunteer

They help build our program, because 

they come in, and they say, “Hey, I’ve got 

this thing I want to do. I’ve got this skill I 

want to offer.” So, it’s not just them filling 

vacancies or slots. They come in and say, 

“Hey, could we do this, this new activity?” 

or “I’d like to teach this class.” That’s the 

thing that we really love. And so, we’re 

open to those kinds of things. And our 

volunteers bring that up. 

 —Executive Director, Senior Center
Volunteer Stories Brief | 9

What Is the Benefit of Volunteering 

to Volunteers?

In addition to providing benefits to programs, 

communities, and clients, volunteers themselves 

report experiencing benefits from volunteering. 

When asked about benefits to volunteers, 

stakeholders highlighted the following 

key themes:

Volunteering ...

■ provides a social activity for volunteers that allows them to be active and engaged, build relationships, 

and connect with others.

■ gives volunteers a sense of purpose, meaning and gratification, and an opportunity to give back. 

■ contributes to volunteers’ health, quality of life, and well-being.

■ helps mitigate social isolation and loneliness, 

especially for older adult volunteers. It makes me feel good. And the reason I 

volunteer at all is because I feel like I’ve been 

so incredibly blessed that I want to pay it 

forward. And this is part of doing that. And 

I enjoy working with my wife because I feel 

closest to her when we’re doing stuff like 

this. It is just a win win, win win, win. 

 —OAA Home-Delivered Meals Volunteer 

 (volunteers with his wife)

In addition to the assistance provided to the 

program, volunteering has been shown to be 

good for a person’s health to help someone with 

socializing and remain active in the community, 

and that’s something that you can’t quantify. 

 —ACL Regional Administrator

It’s fun. We get the opportunity to 

help other people, to make a contact with them to help make sure 

they’re safe. They’re good, friendly 

people, and we build a relationship, a connection with them. 

 —OAA Home-Delivered Meals 

 Volunteer

It makes me feel good about myself to be able 

to help people. It breaks my heart when I see 

people that are struggling to either buy insulin 

or pay for their food. And that’s real. It keeps 

my perspective real on what’s really going on, 

gives meaning to my life. 

 —SHIP Volunteer

This may be the most 

worthwhile work I’ve 

ever done. 

 —OAA LTCOP 

 Volunteer
10 | 

What Do Volunteers Say About Their Experience?

As part of the interviews, we talked with six volunteers4

 who shared information about their roles and 

experiences. All volunteers were older adults who 

had volunteered with their program for several years. 

Most importantly, all volunteers reported being very 

happy with their volunteer experience and feeling a 

great sense of satisfaction from volunteer work. The 

excerpts below highlight some of the experiences the 

volunteers shared in their own words.

OAA LTCOP volunteer (62 years old) who had been volunteering with the program for 7 years and currently 

serves as temporary part-time LTCOP employee.

What is the volunteer role you previously had with 

the program? 

Our role is to go out at least once a week to see 

each facility. As requested, we also participate in 

scheduled care conferences where the resident 

or the resident representative and the staff get 

together and try to identify the best way of meeting the resident’s needs. When we go visit, we’re 

looking at a variety of things. One, in general, 

how do the residents look? Are they clean? Are 

they comfortable, are they able to interact, how 

do they think things are going? We ask open-ended questions that are intended to identify issues 

from their perspective. And of course, what we do 

initially is introduce ourselves as advocates for 

the residents and ask them if there is anything 

we can help them with. We also take a general 

look at the facility itself. Are the fire exits clear? 

4 Two volunteers from an OAA home-delivered meals program, 

two volunteers from local LTCOPs, and two volunteers from a SHIP 

program.

Is the temperature reasonable? When it gets hot 

in the summer, is their AC system working effectively? So, we serve a number of roles, and we try 

to find solutions in by working with staff while 

we’re in the facility, but for things that we can’t 

resolve, those go back to our program director.

OAA LTCOP volunteer (74 years old) who has been 

volunteering with the program for 8 years.

What are some of the reasons that you have stayed 

with the program for so long?

I can’t say enough positive about my level of 

admiration for our director and what she does. 

She’s been very inspirational for me. Actually, 

part of the reason that I continue to do what I do 

is that I get acknowledgement from her; I get support. And also, she inspires me to want to continue to act in this capacity. And I guess the small 

victories: just feeling like I’m making a difference 

in somebody’s life, even if it’s not like they talk 

about. I feel like it has been a good fit for me. I 

feel like I’ve been able to make a contribution, 

and I look forward to continuing that.

OAA home-delivered meals volunteer couple (60 and 

67 years old) who have been volunteering for 5 years. 

If you were to rate your volunteer experience on a scale 

from one to five, with one being extremely dissatisfied 

and five being really happy with it, how would you rate it?

Five, definitely. [The program director and 

volunteer coordinator] are so well organized, so 

efficient. They are just on top of everything and 
Volunteer Stories Brief | 11

work well together. They gave us information to 

show us how the home-delivered meal clients are 

selected, the processes the nutrition program 

goes through to prepare the meals, and what 

information they gather. They really give us a lot 

of information. If we do [have] concerns, we share 

them with the program for further follow-up. For 

example, at the hospital, where the meals are 

prepared, there was a little bit of trouble with 

the meals leaking out of the kind of container 

they had them in, and they fixed that. So, they 

follow through when you do let them know what’s 

wrong. They do what they need to do to get it 

fixed so that people get good hot or cold meals.

SHIP volunteer (75 years old) who has been 

volunteering with the program for 14 years.

Do you feel your contribution is appreciated? 

Yes, I do. I don’t think I would do it if I didn’t. 

But, you know, part of that comes from the 

clients, too, because they do appreciate us. And 

our program liaison is so appreciative of us. 

If anyone is ill, she sends cards; she’s always 

there. You know, I feel so supported. She lives 

a long way from where I live, but I was in the 

hospital in 2019, and she came to visit me in the 

hospital. And it was a long wait, on a Saturday, 

so, it wasn’t a workday for her. So, I think that 

she does show her care. The whole agency cares 

for us. And they know that without the volunteers, they can’t do it all. 
12 | 

References

Administration for Community Living. (n.d.-a). State 

Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP). https://

acl.gov/programs/connecting-people-services/statehealth-insurance-assistance-program-ship

Administration for Community Living. (n.d.-b). 

Older Americans Act. https://acl.gov/about-acl/

authorizing-statutes/older-americans-act 

Administration for Community Living. (n.d.-c). No Wrong 

Door. https://nwd.acl.gov/

Older Americans Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C.. § 3018 

(1965). https://acl.gov/sites/default/files/aboutacl/2020-04/Older%20Americans%20Act%20Of%20

1965%20as%20amended%20by%20Public%20

Law%20116-131%20on%203-25-2020.pdf

U.S. Census Bureau. (2020). 2017 national population 

projections datasets: Projections for the United 

States: 2017 to 2060. https://www.census.gov/data/

datasets/2017/demo/popproj/2017-popproj.html