Volunteers: The Key to Expanding Extension Programming for Older Adults

With the rapid growth of the nation's aging population, Extension is trying to provide useful programming for seniors. Like many other Extension programs, older adult wellness education is expanding through the use of volunteer instructors. For the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension's Seniors CAN program, these volunteers come primarily from two groups: peer-educators who are over 55 years of age, including those from diverse populations, and the staff of agencies that already provide services to elderly clients. The inclusion of these volunteer instructors has the benefit of bringing Extension programming to a much larger and more diverse aging audience.