Altruism Sustains the Village Model: How Motivations to Join a Village for Older Adults Predict Long-Term Membership.

A Village is a membership-driven organization based on neighbors helping neighbors age in place. Many Villages express difficulty maintaining membership and have concerns about sustainability. Drawing on socioemotional selectivity theory, we used qualitative and quantitative data from a representative survey of members of ShareCare (N = 91), the first known Village founded in 1994, to 1) identify members' motivations for joining ShareCare, and 2) examine the relationship between motivations for joining ShareCare and being a long-term member. Qualitative data revealed three motivations for joining ShareCare: instrumental, social, and altruistic. Long-term membership was operationalized as 8 years or more. Logistic regression models indicated that people with altruistic motivation were more likely to be long-term members compared to members without altruistic motivation. Instrumental and social motivations were not associated with long-term membership. Our findings inform recruitment and retention of members in Villages, and member-driven organizations for older adults more broadly.

Perceptions of a Culture of Health: Implications for Communications and Programming.

PURPOSE: This study aims to illustrate the potential utility of open-ended survey data, regarding faculty and staff perceptions of a culture of health (CoH), for targeting communications and programming. Overall, these types of data show how they may be used to assist in implementing, improving, and sustaining a CoH in an organization. Design/method/approach. An anonymous online questionnaire was sent to 10,000 employees. The analysis of open-ended responses was performed using the grounded theory approach. Emerging themes were organized into two major categories: favorable perceptions and unfavorable perceptions regarding the university's CoH. FINDINGS: These findings suggest that employees have specific favorable and unfavorable perceptions regarding their university's CoH. Two main favorable perceptions that both faculty and staff commented on were (1) leaders/supervisors showing interest in health and well-being and (2) colleagues participating in healthful behaviors and setting good examples. Examples of unfavorable perceptions include stress not adequately addressed and healthy food options not readily available. Research limitations. The generalizability of the findings may be somewhat challenging given that the analyses are limited to individuals from a large Midwestern university. Also, given that this survey was voluntary, participants in the survey may possess unique characteristics that may have played a role in their likelihood to participate. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: There are few studies that address assessing a CoH in a university setting. This study provides examples of (1) topics to consider when evaluating an organization's CoH and (2) actionable intervention and communication strategies that account for the employee's perceptions. Others might use such examples when evaluating or preparing to assess their own organization's CoH.