Research and Innovation

Dr Darja Kragt

Dr Darja Kragt is a Lecturer in Work Psychology at the University of Western Australia School of Psychological Science. Her research is focused in investigating the role of identity in leadership and leadership development and has been published in several high quality, peer-reviewed journals. Darja is passionate about teaching others how to become better leaders and has facilitated many leadership development workshops and programs for professionals, MBAs and executives. Her other research interests include identity processes in retirement transition and volunteering with emergency services. Before coming to Australia, Darja worked and researched at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Dr Tetiana Bogachenko 

Dr Tetiana Bogachenko is a Senior Research Officer in the School of Education, Curtin University. Her research interests include needs analysis and educational change, second and foreign language learning, migrant and refugee education, heritage language teaching, educational technology, and Aboriginal education. Tetiana has received funding for and successfully led and completed research projects with culturally and linguistically diverse communities, where volunteering was often highlighted in the findings as a key community support resource for those experiencing inequity and hardships. The overarching aim of her work is to facilitate positive education practices and experience exchange, and to provide better opportunities for underprivileged communities around the world. Tetiana also sists on the Editorial Board for the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics.

Associate Professor Megan Paull

Associate Professor Megan Paull is the Head of Management and Marketing in the Murdoch Business School at Murdoch University. Megan has been researching in the volunteering field since the early 1990s. Her focus is on management and governance, including bullying and organisational misbehaviour. Megan teaches in the areas of non-profit management, human resource management, business research methods, organisational behaviour and management. She has had extensive involvement with Volunteering WA and Volunteering Australia including board service and large research projects. Megan is known for running workshops to assist translation of research outcomes into organisations

Professor Kirsten Holmes

Professor Kirsten Holmes is with the School of Management and Marketing at Curtin University. Kirsten has been researching the topic of volunteerism for over 20 years and has particular expertise in forms of volunteering relating to events, leisure, museums, sport and tourism. She has investigated volunteering and volunteer management in Australia, the UK and internationally, with a particular focus on student volunteers, non-volunteers and rural volunteering. She has published over 80 peer reviewed papers in leading journals and is regularly invited to work with industry and government, particularly the not-for-profit sector. 

Dr Peter Devereux

Dr Peter Devereux is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability at Murdoch University. A Councillor at Town of Victoria Park he has extensive overseas experience including with the United Nations. He is on national and international volunteer research committees and coordinates the Western Australian SDG Network. He is also Deputy Convenor of the One World Centre board. Peter has focused on volunteering for development and sustainability policy, research and practice for over 30 years and is passionate about the Sustainable Development Goals because they provide a holistic and universal agreed framework for sustainable development for all communities, business and governments to work together across sectors and scales from local to regional national and global.

Dr Eunjung Kim

Elaine Healy 

Bio to follow.

Engaging Informal Volunteers in Local Contexts

Volunteering within Western Australia spans the ‘spectrum of participation’ with volunteers engaging in activities that have informal, formal, and hybrid features. Informal volunteering is extensive and more engaged in than formal volunteering yet it is not deeply understood, and it is an understudied area.

Murdoch University is partnering with Chorus Australia in this VWA funded research project, to develop an understanding of the role informal volunteering plays in different communities and chart its character and contribution. This pilot study will likely provide information for a broader externally-funded research proposal.

This pilot study will explore three broad research questions:

1. What is the nature and extent of informal and formal volunteering in local communities?
2. What is informal volunteering’s potential relationship with more formal volunteering activities and volunteer involving organisations?
3. Which practices, platforms and people facilitate informal volunteering in a local community, and what are the practice and policy implications?

Term: August 2024 – March 2026
Lead Investigator: Dr Moira Watson Murdoch University,
Co-investigators:
Dr Anne Peachey
Dr Jo-Anne Kestel
Dr Megan Paull

In partnership with Chorus Australia's CEO, Dan Minchin, and staff

Developing a National Rural Volunteering Roadmap (2021 to 2025)

Volunteering WA is pleased to be a partner in this Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project which aims to investigate the challenges affecting rural volunteering in Australia.

Conducting a national analysis of volunteering demand and supply, this project expects to generate new interdisciplinary knowledge of the structural, demographic, organisational and personal factors affecting the sustainability of rural volunteering.

Expected outcomes of this project include a world-first index of volunteering vulnerabilities and a spatial map of volunteering unevenness, leading to the development of an evidence-based National Rural Volunteering Roadmap (2025-2035). The Roadmap will support volunteering peak body partners, governments and rural communities to plan for and support rural volunteering over the longer-term.

Volunteering WA aims to build stronger and more connected communities through volunteering and provides a range of resources, services, programs and support so that the people of Western Australia are made aware of, and understand, the nature, value and scope of volunteering activity in the State.

We will support the project through contributions of staff time, participation as experts and in focus groups, the provision of available data, facilitating linkages to VIOs and networks, and work to co-create the Roadmap document.

The project will run from 2021 to 2025 and more information on opportunities to be involved will be promoted to our members and the community. To register your interest in receiving updates on this project, please email us at ruralvolunteers@volunteeringwa.org.au.

Project Team
• Project Lead - Associate Professor Leonie Lockstone-Binney, Griffith University
• Professor Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University
• Professor Amanda Davies, University of Western Australia
• Professor Melanie Oppenheimer, Australian National University
• PhD student, Griffith University – to be appointed
• Research Associates, Grifftith University, Curtin University, UWA, ANU – to be appointed

Partner Organisations
• Volunteering Western Australia
• Volunteering Queensland
• Volunteering Victoria
• Volunteering SA&NT
• Volunteering Australia

Managing Volunteers in Dementia Care: A Pilot Project

While volunteers are a known resource within a healthcare setting, there is limited understanding of what good dementia care volunteering management practice looks like. This report outlines a project involving a series of interviews and research workshops (held in person and online) over several months in 2023 and 2024 by the Project Team from Murdoch University. The study makes 7 key findings in relation to managing volunteering in dementia care settings in Western Australia in the areas of: Communications; Complexity; Compliance; Organisational Policies; Managing at a distance; First Language; and Training.

The Executive Summary includes useful resources which may assist in the development of programs in dementia care settings.

The Report also identifies potential opportunities for future research.

Lead Investigator: Dr Megan Paull
Co-Investigators: Dr Ana Rita Sequeira; Dr Anne Peachey; Dr Andrea Steele; Dr Ingrid O’Brien; Dr Sally Paulin

Read the Final Report, published March 2025.

Driving volunteer engagement and building parent participation in P&Cs across WA

Funded through Volunteering WA's annual volunteer grant program with the support of the Volunteering WA Research Committee.

Volunteering WA congratulates the WA Council of State School Organisations Inc. (WACSSO) as the recipient of the 2022-23 Research Grant Program. Their project will examine the question of “Volunteer Engagement – Building Parent Participation in P&Cs across WA”. 

Western Australian Council of State School Organisations (WACSSO) is the peak body representing parents of public school students in WA. They provide representation at state and national levels and guidance and support to over 650 Parent and Citizen Associations (P&Cs).

In 2021 P&Cs in WA provided over $17 million to school communities. Recruiting parent volunteers is an ongoing challenge due to natural turnover as children progress in their schooling, and made more difficult by COVID-19.

This project focussed on three questions:

1. What works and does not work to recruit and retain parent volunteers to P&Cs across WA?
2. What can be done to increase participation in P&C activities?
3. How can P&Cs support the participation and inclusion of a more diverse range of parents?

The WACSSO will work in partnership with Murdoch University to deliver the project, under the leadership of Dr Kath Sugars.

Research team:
Dr Kath Sugars, Early Career Researcher, Murdoch University
Dr Megan Paull, Senior Lecturer, Murdoch University

Read the Final Report, published February 2025.
Read the practical resource for P&Cs, which was synthesised from the research findings.

University students’ experiences of volunteering: A qualitative case study (2023)

Funded through Volunteering WA's annual volunteer grant program with the support of the Volunteering WA Research Committee.

Lead researcher: Dr Olivia Gallagher, Edith Cowan University

This project was undertaken to explore the research question “What are the experiences of university health professional students volunteering in Western Australia”?.

The objectives of the study were to: 1. Describe the motivation and perceptions of the university health professional student volunteers and the relevance to learning and future practice. 2. Explore the experiences of university health professional students volunteering. 3. Explore the barriers and facilitators to volunteering among university health professional students.

This qualitative case study was undertaken through interviews with students volunteering in a clinical (hospital) setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A full copy of the research is available here.

WA’s State of Volunteering Report 2023

Volunteering WA, with financial support from the Australian Department of Social Services and WA Department of Communities, is developing a State Of Volunteering Report.  

It will provide information to answer four main questions from our unique, Western Australian, perspective:  

1. Looking back, what has been our recent experience with volunteering? 
2. What is our experience of volunteering today? 
3. What is the economic value of volunteering in WA today? 
4. Looking forward, what is the outlook for the sector?  

The work is an independent report led by Volunteering WA and based on work commissioned from the Institute of Project Management and Curtin University. The work by Curtin University draws from work completed by Volunteering Australia as part of the development of the National Strategy for Volunteering. Highlights from the report will be released at our State Conference in November 2023, with a full report to follow.

Impact of COVID-19 on University Students’ Volunteering – Emerging Trends and Way Forward

Funded through Volunteering WA's annual volunteer grant program with the support of the Volunteering WA Research Committee.

Lead researcher: Dr Fazlul Rabbanee, Curtin University

The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on all volunteering activities in Australia, particularly as traditional in-person volunteering was severely curtailed due to lockdowns, social isolation, and physical distancing requirements. Due to a dearth of existing research on how and to what extent the COVID-19 pandemic impacted university student volunteering, this research addresses four key objectives: (i) identifying the challenges experienced by university student volunteers due to COVID-19, (ii) examining the impact of the pandemic on university student volunteers' wellbeing and resilience influencing their future intention to volunteer, (iii) exploring the emerging trends of university students' volunteering in WA, and (iv) identifying the influence of COVID-19 on virtual and informal volunteering among university students in WA

Read the University Students' Volunteering During the COVID-19 Pandemic Report, Published April 2023

Volunteering in Aged Care Settings in the time of COVID and beyond (2021)

Volunteering WA has released the final report on Volunteering in Aged Care Settings in Western Australia – Good Practice During COVID-19 and Beyond, authored by Dr Megan Paull and Dr Sally Paulin, Murdoch Business School + Centre for Healthy Ageing.

The project was funded by a Lotterywest grant to Volunteering WA and supplemented by contributions from Volunteering WA and Murdoch University.

The project was designed to facilitate knowledge sharing from those actively involved in volunteering and volunteer management in aged care settings in WA during this COVID-19 period, with a particular focus on residential aged care and the Community Visitors Scheme.

The full report, summary report and seven Good Practice Guides for specific users are available here.

The Jacaranda Project (2019)

The Jacaranda Project was a pilot which looked at volunteering in aged care settings. It was supported by Volunteering WA and stakeholders representing a group of Aged Care Providers. Interviews were carried out with volunteer managers and volunteers. The findings from the project were presented and discussed by the research team from Murdoch University to volunteer managers in the aged care sector in June 2019. The findings included the importance of good relationships between staff and volunteers and a sense of ownership of their role amongst volunteers surveyed. The final report is available here. Contact Dr Megan Paull, Murdoch University for more information.

The Social and Economic Sustainability of WA’s Rural Volunteer Workforce (Completed 2019)

Volunteering is critical to the survival and success of rural communities in WA. The past two decades have seen an increase in the community services delivered by volunteers and demand on the volunteer workforce has intensified. Yet, over the same period there has been a decline in volunteer participation across Australia resulting in a shortage of volunteer labour. This study uses case studies of three rural communities in WA to investigate the role of volunteering in creating a sense of community wellbeing and delivering essential services in rural areas, and identifies the strategies volunteers and voluntary organisations are using to sustain the rural volunteer workforce. Contact Professor Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University for further information. The final report is available to download (PDF). This project was funded by the Curtin Bankwest Economics Centre.

Creating and Sustaining a Strong Future for Volunteering in Australia (Completed 2018)

This project sought to answer the question of how to increase social participation by converting non-volunteers to the benefits of volunteering. A world first, this project created new theory by examining three levels of analysis: the micro level of the individual volunteer or non-volunteer; the mezzo level of the volunteer-involving organisation; and the macro level of society. This innovative approach led to the development of two tools: the convertibility tool that calculates an individual’s likelihood of volunteering; and the recruit ability tool that provides a self-diagnostic instrument for volunteer-involving organisations to review their volunteer program and change their strategy. Contact Professor Kirsten Holmes, Curtin University for further information. Tools developed during the project – and other outputs - are freely available for volunteer-involving organisations on the project website. The project was funded by the Australian Research Council, with contributions from Volunteering WA, the WA Department for Communities, Volunteering Victoria and Volunteering SA & NT.