This thesis examines the subjective experiences of elderly people when it comes to communal ac-tivity and its significance to their everyday lives. The theoretical framework of the thesis focuses on the everyday life as experienced by the elderly and the significance of communal activity in it. The material for the thesis has been compiled through interviewing elderly people partaking in communal activity. A total of five elderly people were interviewed, all of them living in the same area and involved in the same communal meetings. The interviews were carried out as narrative interviews because it provided the interviewees with more leeway to talk about their everyday lives and sense of community. The interviews were recorded in spring 2022. The study is qualitative in nature, and the material has been analysed utilising theory driven content analysis.

I’ve arranged the results of the study into different themes based on subject matter. The guiding themes of the study were a sense of community, its significance, and everyday life. Based on the analysis, elderly people defined sense of community as something that provides structure to everyday life and keeps loneliness at bay. However, it didn’t lessen the need for outside help. To the interviewees, having a sense of community was a great source of joy, affecting the perception towards everyday life in a positive manner. Need for care and healthcare demands were mentioned as factors that couldn’t be addressed though sense of community.

Even bigger groups of people can benefit from communal activity by having both meaningful things to do and a sense of cohesion. These social contacts can somewhat maintain or even improve an elderly person’s ability to function. The result show that a sense of community makes the everyday lives of elderly people more meaningful. Communal activity provides structure to everyday life, supports social behaviour, and in the best-case scenario, it can also maintain an elderly person’s ability to function. As told by the interviewees, having a sense of community also reduces loneliness.