General News
3 December, 2024
Urgent call for vollies
FIFTY volunteers from the Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme (ACVVS) have been honoured in Cairns as the government launches an inquiry to stem the rampant drop in numbers.
With a 10 per cent decrease in volunteers in Queensland in the last three years, programs like FNQ Volunteers ACVVS are struggling to find volunteers and, due to the concerning numbers, the Queensland Government has launched an inquiry into volunteering set to be delivered in September 2025.
The inquiry will focus on restrictions on volunteering caused by legislation and regulation, current government support for the sector and opportunities for improvement, barriers to volunteering for non-volunteers, current restrictions adversely limiting active volunteers and opportunities for diversification in the volunteer workforce.
Volunteers Minister Ann Leahy said the parliamentary inquiry would be an important first step in providing more support for Queenslanders who wanted to volunteer.
“Volunteers make vital social and economic contributions to our state,” she said.
“The Crisafulli government is committed to removing those barriers and creating pathways to volunteering. This inquiry is the first step toward that.
“The experiences of volunteers on the frontline need to be heard so the barriers they face can be addressed and we can reverse the decline in volunteering numbers.” FNQ Volunteers president Annette Sheppard said last week’s meeting was an important occasion to celebrate those volunteers that continued their hard work despite the barriers.
“It’s really important for us to recognise the effort that volunteers are putting into it, the fact that they give their time and energy to something that they really didn’t have to, but they make that ongoing choice,” she said.
“From a local perspective the pandemic has been devastating, the numbers of volunteers have diminished significantly since COVID.
“This program (ACVVS) has been successful, people are really enthusiastic about it but we need more younger volunteers and they’re so busy these days.”
Queensland’s most senior ACVVS official and executive officer of the Queensland Community Care Network Kieran Mawdsley said there was a lot that the government could do to boost volunteer numbers.
“I think COVID really hurt everybody, so a lot of people are trying to kind of make some money back because they’re suffering. So, it’s difficult to find people who have the time to give without getting money back,” he said.
“There’s a lot of things that can be done, a lot of it is promotion, trying to get the word out there that people are needed especially for programs that aren’t as obvious, programs like ACVVS where people become friends with the elderly are not at the forefront.”
FNQ Volunteers ACVVS volunteer Manuel Colque said volunteering for him was a way to give back. “Volunteering is like bringing balance into our life, we receive so much, we have homes and loving families, so for me, I felt the need to give back all of those good things into the world by supporting people who need it the most,” he said.
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