Annual Reports
Our most notable projects include Golden Gurus, which involves skilled volunteers aged over 50; Skills Bank, which allows volunteers to register their skills profile online; and VolBiz, an online register that links businesses with local community organisations.
We collaborate with nonprofits everyday through our linking service, which connects volunteers and community organisations. Our Volunteer Recruitment Management: Multi-Agency Approach, a collaboration of all agencies in the state involved in disaster management, helps our community to be better prepared to respond to natural disasters.
We have explored effective and sustainable corporate-nonprofit engagement through organic and open discussions around our Business Roundtable.
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Both the Federal and State Government recognised volunteering through a number of new focus points including the National Social Inclusion Agenda and the Towards Q2: Tomorrow’s Queensland 2020 strategy to boost the proportion of Queenslanders involved in their communities by 50%. Another highlight of the financial year was to see Di Morgan, Chief Executive Officer of Volunteering Queensland, appointed to the Expert Panel for the National Compact. |
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Substantial developments in volunteering included the establishment of the Queensland Government’s Office for Volunteering (OFV) within the Department of Communities. At a federal level, the Commonwealth Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA) now has the responsibility for the Commonwealth funded Volunteer Management Program (VMP). |
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Key strategic directions for Volunteering Queensland included encouraging flexible volunteer participation, promoting governance models relevant to current impacts on volunteering, growing political interest in volunteering, balancing risk management and risk taking within the volunteer movement and measuring the social as well as economic value of volunteering. |
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The inclusion of Volunteering Queensland as a partner in implementing the ‘Strengthening Non-Government Organisations’ Strategy of the Department of Communities, will consolidate the infrastructure necessary for active volunteering throughout Queensland. In particular, this involvement will support the state-wide development of VolBase through our network of Volunteer Resource Centres. |
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Three Volunteer Resource Centres (VRCs) one at Toowoomba, Logan and the Sunshine Coast were developed to the point where they are now able to make a real difference to volunteering in their communities. Important upgrades to our capacity to provide computerised referral and information services was completed, in response to the increasing importance of “online” services in support of volunteering. |
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The number of volunteers seeking referral services continued to grow, with an increasing number of volunteers using the internet volunteer referral and job matching services. Volunteering Queensland also experienced growth in delivering education and training services. Our membership package was reviewed and updated to ensure that it keeps pace with the changing legal environment. |
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CHOGM, the devastating bushfires in NSW and the insurance crisis meant that volunteering was never far from the news headlines this financial year. The Committee of Management and staff also engaged in a comprehensive strategic planning process which highlighted the need to obtain additional financial resources to continue to be the leading volunteering agency in Queensland, providing the basic infrastructure to support and enhance volunteering throughout the state. |
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Volunteering Queensland not only met the challenges of the International Year of Volunteers (IYV), we exceeded our aspirations and expectations. The state has seen increased rates of participation by people seeking to volunteer in many fields and there can be little doubt that IYV is a contributing factor to this surge of interest. In addition to the celebrations, the opportunities presented by IYV have created a greater awareness of the importance of volunteering to our community. |
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Partnerships with government and the corporate sector continued to expand as well as growth in our state-wide memberships with over 1,000 nonprofit organisations representing every sector of volunteer involvement across Queensland. We have lobbied hard to ensure that the International Year of Volunteers will leave Queenslanders with a legacy that will provide the foundations for the future. |