Volunteer Stories: Why Ruth turned to helping others in retirement

To mark International Day of Older Persons, we wanted to share stories from some of our brilliant volunteers about their contributions.

Ruth started volunteering with Independent Age almost 10 years ago. While retiring slowly, over a period of seven years, she became more involved with volunteering, resulting in dedicated roles with various organisations.

Having trained as an advocate at the start of her retiring journey, Ruth met one of our Independent Age colleagues, Julie, at a local forum in Essex and was instantly “caught up in the enthusiasm of Independent Age”.

Born in London, Ruth felt that she almost shared her parents as she was brought up with around 200 children. Her father was the principal of a large children’s home, and it was this positive upbringing and wonderful childhood that helped her develop a good grounding in caring for, listening to, and supporting others. All of these skills would come in useful later in her life, throughout her career and her volunteering.

During her career, Ruth had her own training consultancy. She trained people in supervision, management skills, and communication. She knew that she wanted to maintain and share the skills she had gained throughout her career in later life. Ruth describes herself as a natural coordinator and someone who loves to get involved. This makes her a perfect fit for volunteering with Independent Age, and for her other volunteer roles as a Citizen Advocate and school governor.

As an Independent Age volunteer, Ruth is involved in activities ranging from organising engaging coffee mornings and meet-ups, to training new volunteers and helping them to develop their communication skills. She loves to get help with the development of the team, and regularly signposts people to our guides, most significantly, our Scamwise guide.

Ruth has always enjoyed meeting new people and offering support to those who need it, especially in retirement. She enjoys working with older people, and part of why Ruth has continued volunteering with Independent Age over the years is because “they do what they say do!”.

“They help people maintain their independence in older age. They look for activities and ways for people to do this, they’ll go with them, and they won’t stay too long!”

Volunteering and supporting others to make their lives more manageable has enabled Ruth to gain a sense of satisfaction. She feels valued and useful as she offers up her time, skills and knowledge, while using her own experiences to benefit those around her.

Find out more about Independent Age’s volunteering opportunities here.