Tertiary Engagement
Volunteering WA convenes the Tertiary Community Engagement Committee, which aims to share good practice in student volunteer management as well as ideas for promoting tertiary volunteering on and off campus. Members of the Tertiary Community Engagement Committee represent: UWA Guild Volunteering, Curtin Volunteers, ECU Volunteering, Murdoch Guild Volunteering, and Notre Dame Volunteer Network.
University-based volunteer hubs provide meaningful volunteering opportunities for students, track and recognise volunteer engagement and promote the wide-ranging benefits of volunteering for tertiary students. Topics of interest for the Committee included: transcript recognition, marketing techniques, event volunteering and volunteer management systems.
While COVID-19 meant that face-to-face volunteering came to a grinding halt, most university volunteer hubs found innovative virtual ways to serve the community such as online tutoring and CANVA card-making for aged care residents.
UWA Guild Volunteering
Guild Volunteering is a joint venture between Volunteering WA and the UWA Student Guild that celebrated its 10th year anniversary in 2019. This busy Hub is the only dedicated service at UWA that connects students to meaningful and impactful volunteer opportunities in the community.
During this reporting period the Hub advertised over 700 volunteer opportunities that ranged from popular organised group-based activities, to referrals for longer-term opportunities at one of our 280 partner not-for-profit organisations. Almost 2,200 students contributed over 57,000 hours of volunteering across all different sectors of the community.
The COVID-19 disruption provided opportunities to innovate into the virtual volunteering space. Our popular Micro-Volunteering program moved swiftly online, engaging over 100 students to create inspiring messages of hope for front line workers, people in isolation and other impacted communities. The period inspired new projects including a primary school virtual mentoring program called ‘Inspiring Minds’. In partnership with a local primary school, this program connects UWA student mentors to children and their families from refugee and Indigenous backgrounds to provide extra support with literacy.
2019 Highlight
Launch of the new Inter-Generational program that links UWA students to people living in aged care facilities. The inaugural activity involved student volunteers guiding guests from the Bethanie Geneff facility around the UWA campus.
The demand for opportunities to make a difference coming out of the COVID-19 period remains extremely high and we look forward to connecting even more passionate UWA students to volunteer in the WA community.
National Student Volunteer Week
National Student Volunteer Week, held between 12 – 18 August 2019, was an opportunity celebrate young people who are striving to make change through volunteering.
Each university hub held a range of activities such as panel discussions, micro-volunteering events, expos and recognition celebrations. The annual inter-university tree planting day took place in collaboration with Perth NRM, and saw representation from all WA universities.
