This research aims to explore the overview, influences, and effects of utilizing elderly human resources by a non-profit organization through empowerment, as well as the required management factors and possible barriers of a community-based social enterprise, in order to offer a reference for the application and development of an elderly labor force for social enterprises in future. This study adopted a qualitative research method and collected data by one-on-one semi-structured interviews in combination with secondary data. The research object is Yuanfu Community Development Association. The key actor in the empirical data was classified into two categories: the staff of community organizations were interviewed by non-random sampling and elderly servers were sampled for interviews by purposive sampling.
The analysis found that the motivations of an organization to invest in a social enterprise are to creatively develop the industry of a community to refresh and activate the community, encourage the elderly to expand their life sphere to jump off the role of being serviced, and to seek out self-sufficiency of a community without relying on government funds and subsidies. The study also analyzed the characteristics of elderly servers, the features of application of elderly human resources, the management development factors of a community-based social enterprise, and the influence and effect of the application of elderly human resources by empowerment in the community organization. This research suggests that relevant community organizations may develop local industries in combination with their local resources, invite male elderly to be servers of Eighty Café, improve the profession of their human resources, assign work to young people and make them feel a sense of achievement, and establish common views with their members. It also offers suggestions to the government and its related policies: services should be provided from the dimension of empowerment through the government’s publicity on industries and features of the community.