Out of Uniform: Building Community Resilience Through Non-Traditional Volunteering - Annual Report 2016-2017 (NSW)

19/02/2018

Failure to accept and adapt to change means running a risk of falling behind.  This report informed by research, charts the progress to date of a program run by the NSW SES to support their efforts to rise to the challenges of harnessing the potential of new volunteering styles with the ultimate aim of reinvigorating the emergency volunteering sector, augmenting capacity and achieving better community outcomes.  Findings may assist other volunteer-based organisations in their quest to embrace emerging opportunities.

To access this report:  Click Here

Authors: John Handmer, Blythe McLennan, Joshua Whittaker, Tarn Kruger - Centre for Risk and Community Safety, RMIT University, Victoria.

Published: September 2017.

Background to the Research:

This project was designed to support the development of new and more inclusive strategies for volunteer engagement and management for the emergency management sector and will assist in shifting the narrative around emergency volunteering from one of decline to one of transformation and opportunity.

Objectives:

  1. To identify how non-traditional emergency volunteering contributes to building community resilience across the stages of emergency management.
  2. To identify ways to promote community resilience through support of non-traditional emergency volunteering.
  3. To develop and evaluate alternative engagement strategies for emergency volunteering that are inclusive of non-traditional volunteering and volunteering organisations.

Methodology:

The research methodology included four key stages: 1) literature review, 2) case studies via depth interviews 3) an evaluation of alternative engagement strategies 4) the development of a communication strategy for the communication of key findings.

Key Outcomes/Findings:

  • Research findings were used to directly inform the development of a new Flexible Volunteering Strategy by the NSW SES, brought to life by their Volunteering Reimagined As part of the program three new categories of volunteering were introduced in addition to existing Unit members:
    • Community Action Team (CAT) members are a group of people or individuals who join a designated Community Action Team and are tied to a geographical area or a specific functional role.
    • Spontaneous volunteers are those individuals who provide assistance to the NSW SES in a flexible way, usually in response to large disasters.
    • Corporate volunteers are employees of companies that have partnered with the organisation and the employer provides volunteer leave for their workers to contribute to the NSW SES.
  • Research assisted in the development of a coordinated National Spontaneous Volunteering Strategy and a new handbook: Communities-responding-to-disasters-planning-for-spontaneous-volunteers. The handbook supports the strategy by providing practical guidance to organisations on ways to incorporate its principles into their plans and activities.