Next week, 16 – 22 May 2022, is volunteer week. Celebrating these amazing people, doing what they do, quietly and unassumingly, taking care of business!!
Volunteering Australia defines volunteering as follows: 'Time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain'.
COVID had a profound impact on volunteering. Research data shows that organisations and community groups lost almost 33% of their volunteers, which makes this year's celebrations even more special and important. Raising awareness and celebrating the volunteers who managed to hang in there these past 2 years.
Committees and community groups need volunteers. We need people to put their hand up and step forward and become involved. Volunteering has many benefits:
- Emotionally and socially – meeting other incredible people sharing similar interests and passions
- Personal development – develop and learn new skills and could provide pathways to employment
- Building resilient and healthy communities
An interesting, often overlooked fact is, that sporting and physical recreation enjoys the highest participation of numbers of volunteers, ranging from umpiring to social activities to preparation and arrangement of events and fund raising, to name but a few.
Another major group is social support volunteerism, covering areas such as driving the Red Cros vehicle, working at opp. shops and meals on wheels. Too many to mention.
It is interesting to note how the profile of volunteering has changed over the last 10 years due to the changing legal environment as well as the expectations of people volunteering. This also put pressure on community groups to change and adapt.
Also, due to COVID, organisations and committees are struggling financially because they could not fund-raise the way they normally would have. It is important for government, both local, state and federal, to step up and support groups and organisations. If not, we are going to see an even greater exodus of volunteers, and we as a community will be the poorer for it!
Are you a volunteer? To celebrate National Volunteer Week, we would like to recognise and thank all volunteer across the Shire with an afternoon tea:
Time and date: 3pm, Monday 16 May
Venue: Railway Tracks Café
Registration is essential via this link bit.ly/cgsc-volunteerweek
