Promotion and formation of the voluntary work with major persons in the spanish university.

Abstract

Law of Volunteerism (Ley 45/2015) stating Spanish universities “will provide what is necessary to secure the media and relationship systems that make it possible for mutual exchange of information, technical cooperation and joint action in the exercise of its powers, in order to integrate their actions, thus contributing to improve the voluntary action and the joint participation of the citizens”. Regarding older people, university volunteer programs could be a way to promote their participation in society and also their active and healthy aging. This study describes the role of Spanish universities in the promotion of volunteerism with older people. Forty-three Spanish universities were asked for the number of older volunteers that are involved in volunteerism at their university, and the number of training volunteering courses related to older people that they offered. Results show that there are few training volunteering courses that involve older people in Spanish universities (31%). Also there is scant participation of older or young volunteer students involved in these programs (1% and 2% respectively). To conclude, we encourage universities to increase their efforts to promote training volunteering programs towards older people and promoting the participation of university students in those.