Fight against club death: country women rely on commitment and cohesion!

Svenja Leder, who has been the chair of the Lüneburg district association since April 2022, comments concerned about the decline in the number of members in the 17 local associations of the association, which has over 2000 members. There is a visible decline, especially for young people in management positions. A concrete example is the local association in Melbeck, which could possibly be dissolved for the 1st chairman due to a missing successor.

leather emphasizes the important role of regular meetings for the quality of life of older women and plans to emphasize the importance of volunteering and management. In order to draw attention to the challenges, she will take part in seven annual general meetings to present her work.

challenges in volunteering

Although she is committed, Leder's time as chair is restricted by her job and other obligations. Her predecessor, Sabine Block, was able to raise more time for the tasks for over twelve years. Another problem is the lack of members between the ages of 50 and 60 who would be suitable for board members.

In Germany, around 16.42 million people in volunteering are active in 2024, and a slight increase compared to 2021 with 16.24 million. Much of the volunteers are over 50 years old, and a fifth of them even over 70 years. On average, this group has higher school and vocational training as well as a better budget net income. There are around 620,000 clubs in the country, with 8000 to 9,000 clubs disappearing due to personnel problems and a low willingness to take on honorary offices.

The Federal Government is planning a commitment strategy to promote volunteering, but sees weaknesses in implementation. Critics criticize the lack of concretization and practicality of this strategy.

Tough the topic of volunteering, a study entitled "Rural commitment in demographic and social change: Status quo, challenges and design perspectives using the example of country women" provided important knowledge in rural areas. This study, in which over 4000 country women took part, emphasizes that volunteer work for cohesion, quality of life and the general services in rural regions is central, such as Landfrauen.info reported.

The study deals with relevant framework conditions, challenges and solutions for the commitment of women and identifies great potential, but the realization of which depends on incentives and supportive structures. A science practice dialog was established as the basis of the research project, which is funded by the federal program "Rural Development and Regional Creation" (BULE+).