Project Overview
Canada's rural population is increasingly older and turning to volunteers and volunteer-based programs (or 'voluntarism') to mediate the challenges of population aging. The Older Voluntarism in Aging Rural Communities research seeks to understand and explore the complexities of rural older voluntarism and the uncertain capacity and resilience of aging rural volunteers, the volunteer-based programs they support and, more generally, the communities where they live.
Case studies conducted across Peterborough County, Ontario feature interviews and focus group discussions with volunteer-based program administrators and older volunteers from programs across the spectrum of typical volunteer programs in rural Canada, including community support, emergency services, healthcare, heritage, housing, library and recreation. Findings reveal the challenges, opportunities, prospects and precarity of rural older voluntarism and the implications for personal, program and community sustainability.
Selected Publications
Rural older voluntarism during the COVID-19 pandemic: Project report
Authors: Erika Snowden, Amber Zapletal, Mark Skinner and Elizabeth Russell (2025)
Trent University
Rural insights into the precarity of older voluntarism during COVID-19: Preliminary report
Authors: Erika Snowden, Amber Zapletal, Mark Skinner and Elizabeth Russell (2023)
Trent University
Rural volunteer fire services and the sustainability of older voluntarism in ageing rural communities
Authors: Amber Zapletal, Elizabeth Russell, and Mark Skinner (2021)
Journal of Rural Studies, 88
Rural aging during COVID-19: A case study of older voluntarism
Authors: Amber Zapletal, Elizabeth Russell, and Mark Skinner (2021)
Canadian Journal on Aging, 40(4)
Rural older volunteers and the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Amber Zapletal, Elizabeth Russell, & Mark Skinner (2021)
Report for community participants
Rural public libraries as contested spaces of older voluntarism in ageing communities
Authors: Amber Zapletal and Mark Skinner (2019)
Journal of Rural Studies, 70
The challenges and opportunities of sustaining volunteer-based rural libraries
Authors: Amber Zapletal, Mark Skinner and Chris Furgal (2019)
Public Library Quarterly, 38
Older voluntarism and rural community sustainability: A case study of a volunteer-based rural library
Authors: Amber Zapletal (2018)
Trent University
The dynamics of voluntarism in rural dementia care
Authors: Rachel Herron, Mark Rosenberg and Mark Skinner (2016)
Health & Place, 41
Connecting socially isolated older rural adults with older volunteers through expressive arts
Authors: Ann McLeod, Mark Skinner, Fay Wilkinson and Heather Reid (2016)
Canadian Journal on Aging, 35
Place integration through efforts to support healthy aging in resource frontier communities: The role of voluntary sector leadership
Authors: Neil Hanlon, Mark Skinner, Alun Joseph, Laura Ryser and Greg Halseth (2014)
Health & Place, 29
Ageing, place, and voluntarism: Towards a geographical perspective on third sector organisations and volunteers in ageing communities
Authors: Mark Skinner (2014)
Voluntary Sector Review, 5(2)
Growing old in resource communities: Exploring the links between voluntarism, aging, and community development
Authors: Mark Skinner, Alun Joseph, Neil Hanlon, Greg Halseth and Laura Ryser (2014)
The Canadian Geographer, 58
