Creating a safe and positive volunteering experience

Consultation Process

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 14 December 2020 to 22 January 2021. Find out more about the consultation process. Below is a record of the engagement.

Help update the Volunteering Strategy for South Australia so it reflects your experiences and supports your efforts.

What’s being decided?

Since 2014, our Volunteering Strategy for South Australia 2014-2020 (the Strategy) has coordinated and helped to grow the sector. Approximately 70% of South Australians freely donate their time and efforts to volunteer initiatives, contributing approximately $5 billion to our economy every year.

The Strategy is now being updated (for release in early 2021) with a key focus on making sure that volunteering in South Australia is positive and safe, for all of us.

We want to make sure that the updated strategy:

• reflects your experiences and better supports your volunteering efforts;
• identifies and establishes the best ways to help prevent conflict;
• establishes ways to resolve issues simply and effectively, where conflict can't be avoided.

This will ensure that volunteers can get back to doing what they love most and that organisations can continue to enjoy the many benefits volunteers bring.

We want to hear from you about your experiences with volunteering, particularly:

• what your volunteering experience has been like
• what a positive and safe experience looks like when volunteering
• the nature of any issues you may have encountered
• your ideas for how conflicts could be avoided or resolved into the future.

Get involved

To have your say:

• join the online discussion
• complete the online survey:
  • For organisations
  • For the community
• send us an email - ofv@sa.gov.au

Your survey participation and answers will be completely anonymous.

How can your input influence the decision?

Your input will inform what the sector needs to put in place to manage conflict and ensure volunteering is a positive and safe experience.

Understanding what contributes to a positive and negative volunteering experience, will help to better support volunteers and the organisations that work with them, and to grow the sector in South Australia.

What are the next steps?

Your feedback will be reviewed by an independent researcher and the findings reflected in a report. 

This report will be presented to the Volunteering Strategy for South Australia Working Group and will inform the best mechanisms to support safe and positive volunteering.

Contact details

For general enquiries, please email us at ofv@sa.gov.au or call us on 1300 014 712 during business hours (9 am to 5 pm, weekdays).

Closing date: 5pm, Friday 22 January 2021

Background

Now Closed

This online engagement was hosted on YourSAy from 14 December 2020 to 22 January 2021. Find out more about the consultation process. Below is a record of the engagement.

Volunteering is richly rewarding – for volunteers and for the organisations that work with them. But sometimes things can go wrong. We know that while many volunteers have positive experiences, some don’t go so well, and we want to make volunteering a positive and safe experience for all.

We have committed to working with the volunteering sector to explore the ways in which issues and conflict can be prevented and resolved.

Our existing Volunteering Strategy

In 2014, we released the Volunteering Strategy for South Australia 2014-2020 in partnership with Business SA, the Local Government Association of South Australia and peak volunteering advocacy body Volunteering SA & NT. The Strategy provides a coordinated and collaborative blueprint for action, identifying opportunities to promote and sustain volunteering until 2020.

A formal Volunteering Strategy Partnership Board comprising representatives of each partner and an independent chairperson governs the strategy.

The current Volunteering Strategy has successfully delivered a range of volunteering initiatives across the state. A full list of achievements is available on the Volunteering Strategy for South Australia website.

As part of the Volunteering Strategy 2014-2020, working groups are identified to deliver initiatives and address specific issues associated with the key areas of the strategy.

A working group comprising of people from across the sector has been meeting to explore mechanisms which will help to prevent and resolve conflict – ensuring that people have a positive and safe experience while volunteering. This is the main focus point in reviewing and updating the current strategy.

The new Volunteering Strategy

The new Volunteering Strategy will be released in early 2021. It will set the vision for volunteering over the next six years and outline how we will continue to improve the volunteering experience for everyone in South Australia. We believe there are many opportunities ahead for all of us, particularly as society changes along with volunteering habits. 

Incorporating lessons learned from the first Volunteering Strategy, the second Volunteering Strategy will introduce a more flexible governance structure and deliver on initiatives that grow and support volunteering in South Australia – including how to ensure volunteering is a safe and positive experience for all.

Volunteering in South Australia at a glance

• 900,000+ South Australians volunteer
• $5 billion estimated economic impact
• 1.73 million volunteer hours per week
• 45% engage as formal volunteers
• 46% engage in informal volunteering
• People in rural regions more likely to volunteer than people in metro regions.
• Females are more likely to volunteer than males but the gap is closing (2% gap)
• Overseas-born groups less likely to volunteer than Australian-born
• ‘helping others in the community’ and ‘to give something back’ are common reasons for volunteering
• 3 most common benefits from volunteering are: 
  • ‘personal satisfaction’
  • ‘friendship’
  • ‘feeling part of the community’