attracting & engaging
diverse voices & volunteers

Courtesy of Anna Guest, Founder and CEO, Rising Tide Volunteer Solutions

Understanding Your Community Beyond Your Lived Experience

Conduct some research to understand the demographics and interests of your community.  Census data can provide helpful information to give you a sense of who’s living in your community and can provide information about age, household income, education, disability and much more.  Exploring this information can help you understand how representative your leadership and team is of your broader community, and help you identify which voices may be missing.

Pro Tip: Find your census data in your community profile!   

Collaborate with Community Leaders and Organizations 

Now that you have a sense of the types of people you’d like to connect with, consider what people and organizations in your community could help you learn more and make connections.  Where do people go for resources, support, and community?

Connect with libraries, faith-based organizations, town office, LGBTQ+ organizations, area agencies on aging or other social service organizations – which all often serve as go-to resources.  By talking with people at these types of organizations, you can share about the work you’re doing with your age-friendly organization, and your intentions to be inclusive and welcoming to all.  Engage in open and respectful dialogue to learn about the unique needs and concerns of various people in your community, common barriers or special considerations.  Collaborating with trusted organizations and community-specific leaders can help you build credibility and facilitates outreach in a more intentional and sensitive manner.  These types of collaborators may also be able to help you make personal connections and facilitate introductions to potential new volunteers. 

Be Willing to be Curious and Uncomfortable

Embracing curiosity and discomfort are fundamental aspects of fostering equity and inclusion in your community and cultivating a culture that is welcoming to all kinds of volunteers. By acknowledging and addressing discomfort, we create a space for open dialogue and learning. It's through an openness to discomfort that we can gain valuable insights, uncover unconscious biases, and ultimately cultivate a more inclusive volunteer environment where everyone feels heard, respected, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives and talents.  Growth often occurs outside of our comfort zones, and community leaders can support this by actively seeking opportunities that challenge preconceptions and expand perspectives. This might involve initiating conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion, even when they might be uncomfortable.

Individually or as a team, reflect on:

• Does our Age-Friendly Community have inclusive practices in place to ensure everyone's voice is heard?

• Do we have representation from various backgrounds and perspectives at decision-making levels?

• What unconscious biases might influence our decisions?

• Are there assumptions made about certain groups of people that need to be challenged?

Committing to diverse representation and inclusion within your community is a complex and evolving practice.  Explore the resources for additional reading, watching, and learning on this topic.

Further Resources from Anna: 

• Master Class, Age-Friendly Volunteers - Around for the Long Haul

**Not all of these are tailored to Age Friendly Community audiences, but there's great information here!

• Data - links to your community Census data are included in your community profile. 

• Find your Bias
  Harvard Implicit Bias Tests: The Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. The IAT may be especially interesting if it shows that you have an implicit attitude that you did not know about.  Offers a variety of tests for: race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexuality and more.  

• Article: How to Build a Community that Celebrates Diversity and Inclusion

• Podcasts and other Recommendations from Mandy Levine

• TED Talks

• Zachary Wood. Why It’s Worth Listening to People You Disagree With 

• Ted-Ed. Four Things All Great Listeners Know 

• Webinars

• National Civic League 

  • Promising Practices Webinar: The ABCs of Inclusive and Equitable Engagement 

Discussion of the myriad of considerations–convener, time, location, language, etc.–that need to be addressed to ensure engagement efforts are inclusive and equitable. Strategies and best practices for equitable and inclusive engagement were shared, with a few community examples. 

• • Promising Practices Webinar: Moving Beyond Welcoming to Community Belonging 

The National Civic League was joined by the Belonging Initiative and The City of Grand Rapids to discuss the differences between welcoming and belonging and present two new tools to help communities include people fully. 

• • Promising Practices Webinar: Bridging Differences to Thrive Together 

Attendees explored how we can use dialogue to bridge divides & build civic muscle.

• Tri-State Learning Collaborative on Aging 

  • Lifting the Voices of LGBT Older Adults

  • Lifting the Voices of BIPOC Older Adults  

We are deeply grateful to Anna Guest and Rising Tides Volunteer Solutions for working with Lifelong Maine to develop these training materials. Special thanks to Sharon Kelley, Berwick for a Lifetime, Candy Eaton, Age-Friendly Sullivan, and Jean Saunders, Age-Friendly Saco, for meeting with Anna to share their wisdom, experiences and challenges working with volunteers
We also want to thank AARP Maine for their thought leadership designing these modules.