Volunteer Management Activity Grants

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The Community Campfires project was an innovative, inclusive approach to volunteer engagement that provided an open entry point for people from diverse backgrounds to discover volunteering and community contribution possibilities. The project was grounded in research insights from a prior VMA project, which identified a disconnect between diverse worldviews and the language and construct of volunteering. The Community Campfire method aimed to bridge this disconnect by uniting people around the shared human experience of contributing to community, in a way that honoured diversity of contributions.

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Bunbury Fringe aims to develop strategies for the inclusion of young people and people living with disabilities to participate in event volunteering. Learnings, resources and strategies for engagement have been developed and shared with the sector. The Fringe Festival was held in January 2024, and the learnings from this event are already informing more inclusive approaches for the 2025 Festival.

The Bunbury Fringe festival is fully dependent on volunteers to operate and in 2024 implemented new recruitment strategies to include a more diverse volunteer base including people with disabilities and youth.

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Peel Volunteer Resource Centre developed a targeted program to intensely support volunteer involving organisations to design, plan, recruit, and engage with a new realm of volunteers. During a recent in-person meeting, Peel Volunteer Resource Centre had the privilege of hearing one participant’s compelling story. The volunteer revealed that, despite having held various jobs, he struggled to maintain employment for more than a week due to a lack of experience and his disability. This experience had severely impacted his confidence, making it increasingly difficult for him to secure stable work. However, he expressed a keen interest in volunteering to build his skills and regain his self-assurance.

In a new approach, the volunteer organisation considered the participant’s disability and how it could be an advantage in the role he was being considered for. The team decided to work closely with Peel Volunteer Resource Centre to identify the best way to support the participant in maximising his potential while building his skills and confidence. After careful consideration, they implemented a one-on-one buddy system that would provide the participant with the necessary support and guidance.

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EdConnect was also funded to develop a pilot project called CanteenConnect. The project aimed to connect newly arrived migrants with volunteering opportunities in School Canteens. A framework for the ongoing rollout of the project has been developed over the first six months of 2024, with a small scale pilot informing the efficacy of the resources and processes being developed. Learnings and resources will be shared with the sector. The pilot will be expanded into more schools later in the year.

EdConnect provides educational based mentorship to young people in schools. However, they uncovered a need for creating volunteer opportunities for people that have recently arrived in Australia and may not have good enough English to participate in their regular programs. They came up with the idea of CanteenConnect, a project that would support school canteens with new volunteers and allow recently arrived migrants with a volunteer opportunity where they can build new community connections.

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The St Patrick’s Community Support Centre Client and Resident Pathway Program developed a targeted and supportive volunteer program that provided opportunities and engagement for St Pat’s clients and residents to meet their identified needs, goals, and requirements to develop skills and gain experience that leads to successful volunteering and/or employment, training or other life outcomes and opportunities.

This pilot program developed a framework for clients and residents to volunteer in roles within the organisation to enable them to gain skills and experience to develop independence and broaden their opportunities in a supportive, structured framework. The program was codesigned with clients and residents to ensure relevance and appeal to the targeted groups.

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RDA Carine has been working to establish a leadership mentoring program designed to include young people, unemployed and people with disabilities in supporting participants in the RDA program. The pilot program will develop resources and a digital App to support easy access to training resources and recognition for volunteers. Still in its early days, the changes to this program will bring learnings for the sector on how to creatively engage neurodiverse volunteers.

RDA Carine has a long history and RDA Australia’s is even longer so as the program has grown the volunteer strategy has needed time in the spotlight. This opportunity to review, rewrite, modernise and diversify our approach to inviting in and supporting volunteers proved an extremely worthwhile project. The working group and survey feedback clearly states that change needs to occur to improve recruitment, diversity, retention and training of their volunteers, but needed to be achieved in a sustainable way to respect the existing culture, program needs and demographics of their 120 volunteers.

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CONNECT provides intensive support to volunteer involving organisations (VIOs) to make their organisation inclusive and welcoming to people from all priority groups. Volunteers Southwest worked with volunteer managers to identify gaps that may present barriers to more inclusive volunteering and acted as a conduit, connecting them volunteers in a supportive and structured way.

Through many years of experience, Volunteer Southwest understand that a lack of confidence is the main barrier to volunteering and this leads to lack of connection and can lead to isolation and mental health issues. Connect aimed to bridge this gap by engaging and supporting priority groups into volunteering.

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At the November 2023 Kimberley Aboriginal Women’s Leadership Roundtable, over 100 First Nations women and girls from across the Kimberley gathered as volunteers to discuss critical projects and programs for people in their region to achieve self-determination and gender justice. The women identified and discussed that one of the priority areas for the next 10 years is to support young girls to grow and glow. They agreed to trial this through developing and running a program where First Nations women from across the Kimberley volunteer their time and wisdom to support and nourish girls from childhood to womanhood. The idea for Rise & Shine began to take form.

The Kimberley Aboriginal Women’s Council stated that “Our women and girls are strong and resilient, and have much to give to our people and communities. However, currently there are significant barriers to our people participating in structured volunteering programs. For example, volunteering often doesn’t take into account the way that our communities interact and engage, and our cultural and kinship obligations, meaning volunteering doesn’t work for us and can be culturally unsafe.”

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Sam* is a proud First Nations woman who strongly believes in connected communities and being in service to others. After realising that she had become isolated and disconnected from society, she started to actively look for volunteering opportunities. “I was looking for ways to learn how to be part of community,” Sam said.

In her search, Sam came across Befriend, a Perth-based organisation that supports people to come together and build thriving communities. Befriend connected with Sam when she attended one of their online workshops, “Contributing to your community: Discovering what you love to give”. Sam also took part in a second online workshop with Befriend called “Stepping stones: Taking the next steps to connect with your community.” The language around connecting with community really resonated. For Sam, it was important to find opportunities that felt natural and without set agendas. She was looking for groups where people supported each other in more general ways, and the Befriend workshops were a great fit. The workshops helped to feel more confident with volunteering.

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Fair Game’s project was one that would support and learn from two McCusker Centre for Citizenship interns, Simon and Paige.

Originally from Katanning, Simon is a proud Noongar man and descendant of the Kaniyang and Goreng Noongar peoples. In August 2022, Simon joined Fair Game through a partnership with UWA’s McCusker Centre for Citizenship and St Catherine’s College program, Dandjoo Darbalung. While at Fair Game, Simon ran their Recycle & Donate program, which provides pre-loved sporting equipment to communities that need it most. At the end of his Fair Game internship, Simon transitioned into a project officer role at the organisation to manage their First Nations internship program. He is now following his dream to teach at Aranmore Catholic College, working with Aboriginal kids in the classroom as a teaching assistant.

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Paige’s love affair with sport began when she was a kid living in Derby. For as long as she can remember, she has always played one sport or another. Paige discovered Fair Game at UWA through her involvement with the McCusker Centre for Citizenship. The Centre was delighted to have her complete a placement towards the end of 2022 in Fair Game’s Recycle & Donate program. Paige plans to return to her community in Derby to teach sports and health. She already knows the kind of work she wants, and plans to work with
teenagers mainly.

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Multicultural Services Centre WA (MSCWA) supports new migrants and refugees with their settlement, welfare, education and training, cultural and legal needs. During a volunteering awareness workshop with the Persian community, a retired woman Esther* expressed her interest to volunteer. However, she was unsure of the kind of volunteering she would like to do. Of concern to her was her age and physical ability, as she worried they may be barriers to doing volunteer work. Esther was also worried that volunteering in a new organisation would be too overwhelming and stressful. MSCWA introduced Esther to their volunteering buddy system and she happily joined the program. Through the program, MSCWA discovered that she enjoyed cooking at home. After being matched with one of the MSCWA mentors, Esther began her volunteering journey.

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With goals of becoming more inclusive, Foodbank’s Peel branch connected with Peel Volunteer Resource Centre (PVRC) to engage people with disabilities through their Socialability program. They knew that their existing team would also benefit from working with volunteers of different abilities, recognising that a diverse volunteer team is a great strength.

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Helen* is a First Nations tertiary student and passionate volunteer. Through volunteering, she has developed a sense of community, wellbeing and personal fulfilment. Helen has also gained new skills, expanded her social networks, and received new professional opportunities. She participated in a yarning session to share helpful insights on how to engage young First Nations youth as volunteers.

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Town Team Movement’s South Hedland Youth Changemaking Program set out to help youth reconnect with their community by reimagining the places they live in. South Hedland youth were given responsibility and empowered to solve problems impacting their community. The program’s aim was to break down barriers, promote volunteering, and support young people to build a sense of ownership, pride and belonging by positively influencing change.

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Volunteer South West’s project was one that would support and learn from two volunteers from different backgrounds, Linda and Maria.

Linda* is a young woman from Vanuatu who arrived in Bunbury in 2021. Highly educated and wanting to learn new skills, she was motivated to meet new people and build a network in her new community. Linda found Volunteer South West on social media and quickly made contact to join their ENGAGE program. She already worked full time, but was also interested in volunteering as a fire fighter, administrator or in an aged care facility. Linda was nervous but looking forward to finding a meaningful position.

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Maria* is a young mother from Brazil and worked as a music teacher and photographer in her home country. After arriving in Bunbury, she worked as a parttime cleaner in a local shopping centre. Unfortunately, she had some negative experiences in this role, as she was still learning English as a language and was not able to answer questions. At this time, Maria did not feel confident speaking in English and preferred to communicate by writing in a translation app. After reading about the ENGAGE program on social media, she contacted Volunteer South West.

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