Community Volunteer Project

Volunteers are crucial to the culture of Western Australia and form the backbone of delivery in local communities. Sport and recreation provides and trains 60% of the community’s volunteers, many of whom volunteer in organisations across the community. With a significant labor shortage outlook and increasing competing time demands on individuals, the potential volunteer outlook could be bleak. A need to escalate the focus on engaging and up skill existing and a new generation of young volunteers is one of the major challenges indentified in the Sport and Recreation Industry Strategic Directions: 2011-2015.

Each volunteer injects $1,554 per year in labour value to the community, contributing to a total of $322 million per annum. Based on current turnover rates of volunteers, if one third of our volunteers are not replaced by the next generation we stand to lose approximately $100 million per annum in community labour value. This investment negates the paucity of government resource propelling the community volunteer system.

It is critical that volunteers are consistently and continually supported to get involved and stay involved in the future. In the sport and recreation system there is over 100 volunteers for every paid employee. This responds to evidence identified through significant research projects conducted within Western Australia and Australia that identifies what is required to ensure a new and sustainable generation of community volunteers – The Community Volunteer Project.  

Project Overview

This initiative will ensure the next generation of volunteers is trained and motivated to serve the community. Young people will be trained with the life skills needed to be a coach, an umpire and help administer clubs.

This investment will:

• educate, retain and train existing and potential volunteers;
• ensure appropriate recognition and rewards for volunteers;
• roll out volunteer workplace planning support to sport and recreation bodies that have significant volunteer systems to make it easier for volunteers to be involved; and
• develop volunteers with new skill sets in sectors of our community that are not involved e.g. young people, low socioeconomic, remote, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD) and Aboriginal.