VOLUNTEERS

When did you start volunteering?  This question was posed to me by the CEO of Volunteering WA Sally Davies in 1985, when I introduced her to a new organisation at Curtin University, Curtin Volunteers! I replied: I haven’t really done much volunteering, and she responded I bet you have!
 
Slowly she got me to confess I had been volunteering most of my life, it’s just that I never thought much about it, and certainly never thought one needed any training to be a volunteer.  But I did, and it struck home when I took over responsibility for Curtin’s radio station, which had four paid staff and over 100 volunteers. 
Volunteers don’t have to DO anything.  If you don’t treat them right, if you don’t thank them informally and also formally, they just stop turning up!
 
Curtin Radio couldn’t function without volunteers, nor could Foodbank WA.
 
Junior sports competitions like netball and football wouldn’t happen without volunteers, nor would churches function.
 
Service clubs like Rotary are run almost entirely by volunteers, as are all the events they hold.
 
Volunteers need training, and many organisations require volunteers to show they have the skills required, before they are allowed to volunteer.
 
A few years ago one credible research organisation took a look at volunteering in WA.
 
They found that about 80 per cent of West Australians donate their time and effort to volunteer work. The socio-economic and cultural value of volunteering to Western Australia in 2015 was estimated to be $39 billion.
 
Other findings were:
  • Volunteers were more likely than non-volunteers to have attended a community event recently.
  • Volunteers were much more engaged in their community, a better ‘citizen’.
  • Volunteers were more trusting of other people, than non-volunteers.
  • Volunteers were much more satisfied with their lives, than non-volunteers.
  • People who volunteered through an organisation like Rotary were more likely to provide informal assistance to someone outside their own household than non-volunteers.
 
Volunteering Australia has compiled the following facts about volunteering and happiness:
  • Volunteers are happier, healthier and sleep better than those who don’t volunteer –doctors should recommend it.
  • 96% of volunteers say that it “makes people happier.”
  • 95% of volunteers say that volunteering is related to feelings of wellbeing.
  • Volunteering results in a “helper’s high,” a powerful physical and emotional feeling experienced when directly helping others.
  • Just a few hours of volunteer work makes a difference in happiness and mood.
  • Sustained volunteering is associated with better mental health.
  • Altruistic emotions and behaviours are associated with greater well-being, better health, and longevity.
  • A strong correlation exists between the well-being, happiness, health, and longevity of people who are emotionally kind and compassionate in their charitable helping activities.
  • The experience of helping others provides meaning, a sense of self-worth, a social role and health enhancement.
  • Volunteering is highly associated with greater health and happiness.
 
What about “Service Learning”?
 
This is becoming more common in schools now, and in some, such as Aquinas College, it is a required part of the curriculum.
 
This is where the volunteering experience is used to help young people learn something new.  One example would be recycling plastic bottles.  The volunteers can provide a community service by collecting the bottles, and helping keep the environment cleaner than it would otherwise be.
 
The learning comes from facilitated reflection, looking at the consequences of not doing this, and showing how an organisation like Greenbatch for example, can partner with schools and Rotary Clubs to process these bottles into 3D printer filament which can then be used to make prostheses and other medical products.
 
Another example is the support given by volunteers organised by Applecross Rotary, to the Starick Services Domestic Violence Refuge in Bentley.  Cleaning up the garden provides a much nicer quiet external environment in which mental healing can begin for the families that have been rescued from their former home with nothing but the clothes they are wearing. 
 
The fresh clothing, toiletries, and even teddy bears show the love that is so desperately needed.  So it’s not just a garden clean-up is it?
 
Volunteering in these contexts becomes very satisfying, because it has become ‘worthwhile’.
CHEERS TO ALL VOLUNTEERS!