Brock looks at Snow Buddies benefits
Community Support Services program asks volunteers to shovel driveways of older adults
If there were more young people willing to shovel driveways and walkways for older adults who can no longer do it themselves, the world would be a better place, and not just from a social perspective.
Researchers at Brock University say this sort of volunteer work could have a positive financial impact on the lives of the people being helped by this sort of work, not to mention potential savings to the health-care system, a boost to the economy and reduced burden on caregivers.
Asif Khowaja, assistant professor in the faculty of applied health sciences, the lead researcher on the project, said a study is looking at the economic costs and savings of volunteer snow-shovelling services.
The university partnered with Community Support Services of Niagara, which runs the Snow Buddies program, and over a two-year period did one-on-one interviews with volunteers and clients and surveyed more than 50 program participants. The surveying and interviews are complete, and now the researchers are working on writing their reports.
What they have found is that volunteers spent on average 83 minutes per snow event shovelling a client’s driveway. If they were at a minimum-wage job instead, they could have earned about $22 in that time.
On the client side, if there were no volunteers to shovel their driveway, their cost to have it cleared per snow event would average $123.
Additionally, the researchers found if a client has a fall-related injury, their out-of-pocket expenses for pain medication or treatment average $62, which doesn’t include the cost to health-care services.
Khowaja said in a region such as Niagara of nearly 500,000 people, with approximately 120,000 people over the age of 65, and a snow- or ice-related fall-injury rate of 2.3 per 1,000 people (based on findings from a U.S. study) that adds up to 276 fall injuries per year.
Khowaja said if even three injuries are prevented for every 10 volunteer tasks, that would add up to thousands of dollars in savings for clients and even greater savings on the health-care system, not to mention the reduced burden on caregivers. There’s also the potential positive impact to the local economy when clients are able to get out and shop.
“If we can show the impact, on a small scale with the limited number of people we interviewed and surveyed, imagine the magnitude of the impact that all of these volunteers are collectively doing in Niagara region,” Khowaja said.
CSSN program manager Lynne Rousseau hopes that by having this type of data available, it will make it easier to attract volunteers, which has been a challenge.
“Volunteerism has become very sporadic,” she said. “That’s just the reality of people’s lives right now. Things changed drastically after COVID as well.”
Dani Albana, Snow Buddies coordinator, said shovelling snow is a hard sell as it’s a physical and cold task, but there are benefits to volunteers beyond getting high school community service hours or building a resumé.
“We have lots of feelings of fulfilment and feeling like they are truly part of the community. I have volunteers tell me that they feel important when they’re able to give back,” she said.
“They also said they enjoy the activity component of it, they like doing a volunteer service that allows them to be active. They’re also allowed to shovel with their friends, so they also found a way to connect with their friends in a meaningful way.”
Rousseau also hopes the partnership with Brock University will lead to an app that would allow people to choose on any given day whether they are able to go out and volunteer, which could help attract more volunteers who can’t commit to always doing it.
More information about the Snow Buddies program is available at happyinmyhome.ca.