What does retirement look like for you?
For a West Lawn resident with an electrical engineering degree, retirement entails spending a part of his week fixing electric appliances donated to Habitat for Humanity’s South Side ReStore.
For a former WBBM-Ch. 2 reporter and anchor/reporter at WMAQ-Ch. 5, retirement includes assisting people at St. Leonard’s Ministries who have been affected by the carceral system.
And for one Northbrook resident with a logistics background in the grocery industry, his post-employment days involve raising awareness on the need for diapers. (One in two U.S. families struggle to afford enough diapers for their children, according to the National Diaper Bank Network.)
The thread that ties this trio together is the Ignatian Volunteer Corps, a national nonprofit that has partnered adults 50 years of age or older — many who are retirees — with organizations supporting people in need.
People come to IVC for the service stay for the community, according to Cathy Buescher, IVC’s Chicago program manager. The service piece includes an eight-to-15-hour-a-week commitment. What’s unique, participants say, is the community building and spiritual reflection — two additional pillars of the program. Buescher said it helps volunteers consider, “What is this service doing for me as a person?”
According to an IVC 2024 impact report, over 550 members serving in more than 300 nonprofit entities in 30 states volunteered over 20,000 hours of service, which led to $12.5 million in savings for those organizations.
Volunteers meet once a month, September through June, to share their experiences with their assignments.
When Charles Malatesta began volunteering with IVC over a decade ago, deciding he’d had a good life and wanted to give back, he said. Back then, the “good works” outweighed the spiritual aspect. He tutored youths in math, did home repair for seniors and worked on Habitat for Humanity projects for several years. Over time however, that evolved, according to Malatesta, and his interest in the spiritual element expanded.
“I like the spiritual element,” Malatesta said, who now fixes up donated furniture and appliances at ReStore. “I was in the Peace Corps when I was young. Us who had a good life … helped other people that aren’t as fortunate. When you’re older, you have more time to do this and you should.”
IVC volunteers are also paired with a trained reflection partner, with whom they meet every four to six weeks to discuss their IVC experience. They also partake in retreats where they talk about faith.
Don Rosanova, a retired president at Roundy’s in Wisconsin, sparked to the holistic approach IVC takes in matching volunteers under the auspices of service, social justice, and reflection. He attests that participation fills needs within oneself as well as those they serve.
“I don’t talk that much about religion to my friends, but at the IVC, that’s the focus,” he said. “I find that very stimulating. I enjoy the meetings. I look forward to them.”
Rosanova landed at Catholic Charities’ Diaper Depot in Round Lake, where he’s served for the last six years — spending up to 15 hours a week bringing on new partners to aid with diaper collection, handling inventory management, doing presentations to raise awareness on how families are affected by a dearth of diapers.
The first Wednesday of every month, the depot packages and distributes diapers to partner organizations, who send in orders with the number and sizes of children they serve. Volunteers fill orders of 50 diapers for each child, while the partner organizations disseminate them.
“I wanted to utilize the skills that I had developed during my career, and this fit that —the operational component … something that involved distribution,” he said. “It involved contact with people, which is a big part of the grocery industry, and customer relations. And the subject matter became very near and dear to my heart.”
Rosanova gets excited over IVC’s educational component: engaging with the community through talks, reading and discussing books on spirituality, social justice or theology; attending Mass; and regular meetings in small groups and with the 71-member volunteer corps for camaraderie, team building and sharing experiences.
“It’s not like you’re going to go volunteer at XYZ or at the hospital, and you’re going to push a wheelchair and that’s all you ever do, and you never have any interaction with anyone else,” Rosanova said.
Buescher says there has been an influx of people inquiring about IVC as of late.
Considering the average age of the current set of service corps members is 71, that number coincides with recent studies that show the combination of retirement and volunteerism reduces the probability of depression and enhances societal well-being.
A 2023 McKinsey Health Institute survey reiterates this with adults 55 and older across 21 countries, showing benefits include reduced cognitive disability, decreased loneliness and enhanced meaning and quality of life.
“I’m not sure what I can say as to the reasoning,” Buescher said. “I have had people tell me, one-on-one, that they have concerns about what’s happening, and the area that has been showing up the most is immigration.”
Buescher is hoping IVC Chicago numbers grow now that the program has a virtual component that allows anybody (not just Catholics) around the U.S. to participate online and a legacy program for IVCers over 70, who served for seven years and aren’t able to do service hours due to their health. While some volunteers cannot focus on the service pillar, they can engage with the community and spiritual reflection pillars of IVC’s program.
“Our average number of years that service corps members in IVC are at an agency is about five and a half,” she said. “Five and a half years as a volunteer at the same nonprofit seems equivalent to a staff person being at a nonprofit.”
IVC placed volunteers with 46 organizations this past year — agencies that pay an annual fee of $2,000 to the organization for eight hours a week or $3,150 for 15 hours a week per volunteer. According to Buescher, the partnership fees make up 60% of IVC Chicago’s revenue, fundraising the other 40% to cover the budget.
Derrick Blakley has volunteered with IVC for four years — two at Kolbe House Jail Ministry and another two at St. Leonard’s Ministries, which helps 400 people a year with its housing, education, and workforce programs, according to Executive Director Zack Schrantz.
Blakley’s journalism background made him a good fit for St. Leonard’s skill-based courses and programming in terms of self-presentation and engaging with others. “Derrick, he’s a very humble guy,” Schrantz said. “He’s got a couple of different lenses here — he’ll emcee some events, help with fundraising, external affairs, and, internally, he’s been working on our Road to Success job readiness training program and doing communication training.”
Schrantz said IVC’s seasoned volunteers not only donate their time, but also their networks to institutions. Given St. Leonard’s 70-plus years of helping people figure out their “what next,” the concept of matching retirees who are looking for their own “what next” seems synergistic, Schrantz added.
“At St. Leonard’s, from what I’ve seen, we never ask people what they did to go to prison,” Blakley said. “We never ask them what they did before they got to St. Leonard’s, because we really aren’t interested in their past. We’re interested in preparing them for the future. Now, if they want to talk about it, we’re there for it. And a number of the paid staff are people who have been through the criminal justice system themselves, which is very important.”
Blakley, a practicing Catholic, said he’s indebted to IVC and St. Leonard’s for allowing him to live out part of his faith with his volunteerism. He said he gets much more out of it than he ever contributes.
“By challenging people to live their faith … a challenge I think a lot of people take seriously and make an effort to do, we’re all practicing, and nobody gets it right, and nobody gets it right all the time. But the key is in the effort,” Blakley said.