Safeguarding Volunteering Project

Safeguarding Volunteering

The Innovation Series

Design Thinking Program

Youth Volunteer Army

Research tells us that without change to the volunteering sector we’ll see a shortfall of 40% (demand for volunteers vs supply of volunteers) by 2030. To address this, Volunteering Tasmania has partnered with Tasmanian local councils through the Safeguarding Volunteering Project, to develop volunteer sustainability strategies to safeguard and prepare for the future of volunteering in communities.

Clarence, King Island, Break O’Day, Devonport and Huon Valley councils and communities have been working with us, using a community co-design framework, to build strategies that are place-based and strategically focused to build a stronger and more sustainable future for volunteering.

We will continue to support more local government areas to invest strategically in local volunteer sustainability.

Resources and tools have been developed as part of this project to support all local councils, organisations and communities to develop their own strategies. If this interests you, please check out the resources below or watch the video which will help you navigate the resources.

Resources

These resources provide an overview of the statistics and demographics of the volunteering sector in Tasmania. They can help inform you about the landscape and changing future of volunteering both on a local and state level and provide the evidence needed to plan and inform future strategies and approaches.

These Local Government and State Volunteer Profiles highlight the local volunteer demographics, the projected volunteer numbers for 2029 and the gap in the number of volunteers available (supply) and the need for volunteers (demand). These profiles can help plan at a local, regional or state level for necessary changes needed to ensure a more sustainable future for volunteering based on current data.

State:

Local Government:

In addition to the Local Government Area data included in the profiles above, the 2016 Census data includes details of the number of volunteers for an Organisation or Group in each Tasmanian LGA by Age by Sex. To access this information on the ABS website please click here.

These resources are designed to support the delivery of a co-design project/framework. Co-design is a powerful community development framework that engages people who are either impacted by or have direct experience with an issue alongside professionals/technical experts to design a solution.

This can be to build a strategy like we have done through the safeguarding project or if you’d like to tackle a challenge or a complex issue within your community, organisation or group they can also be a great guide to do this. These resources should be used sequentially to follow through each phase of co-design.

Phase 1: Planning

Phase 2: Discovery

Phase 3: Sensemaking

Phase 4: Testing and Prototyping

Phase 5: Implementation

These resources have been developed based on our experience with the safeguarding project and are therefore designed to support the development of a volunteer sustainability strategy. While they are most relevant for local councils they can be adapted and considered in other settings and for other organisations, communities, or groups.

These resources will help you plan internally before you start the co-design process for your strategy as well as provide considerations for layout of your strategy and elements we consider fundamental inclusions in a strategy.

This program has been funded by the State Government.

Volunteer Connect

Volunteer Connect is a national volunteer referral system which connects volunteers and organisations. It allows people to search for a new volunteer role and for volunteer-involving organisations to advertise for and recruit new volunteers.