Tasmania appears to have a shrinking pool of volunteers or “suitable” volunteers, according to peak body Volunteering Tasmania,
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There was increased demand for volunteers and existing volunteers were stretched thin in some areas, the organisation argued in its 2018-19 state budget submission.
In an accompanying statement, chief executive Alison Lai said that in discussions with the community which helped inform the submission, Volunteering Tasmania “ … heard loud and clear the need for solutions to address a range of challenges facing volunteerism, including compliance, volunteer fatigue, changing community expectations and the rising cost of volunteering”.
The submission suggested the ageing population was a factor in some areas, with some volunteers moving from providing support to needing it.
It said even some organisations with excellent volunteer management programs were struggling to find volunteers.
Ms Lai said the submission did not focus on those challenges.
She said Volunteering Tasmania would work with affected organisations and continue to pursue collaborative strategies to address the concerns.
Plans included continuing talks about digital platforms to manage volunteer compliance, efforts to “reinvigorate” volunteering in the school curriculum and continuing to investigate best practice volunteer management strategies.
The budget submission sought government funding of $500,000 over three years for a project involving: .
- Mapping and forecasting volunteer participation across Tasmania;
- choosing a municipality in each of the three regions, working with those communities to test and develop a “volunteering change framework” and starting volunteer management strategies co-designed with the communities, for those communities; and
- sharing and promoting the framework and data statewide.