CEO's Welcome
Welcome to the March edition of eNews. It is has been a difficult and challenging month due to the COVID-19 emergency. Many Volunteer Involving Organisations are facing unprecedented challenges for their programs and responding to emergency needs in the community.
Visit our dedicated COVID-19 webpage for advice and information on how to navigate your way through these uncertain times. In times of crisis, Western Australians step up to help, and volunteering provides crucial support to those most vulnerable in the community. That’s why we’re calling on all people who can lend a hand.
Volunteering WA is recruiting emergency volunteers to assist community organisations and Local Government Authorities (LGAs) in helping vulnerable people most at risk from the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Urgent assistance is needed with a variety of tasks from telephone welfare checks to grocery and medication deliveries.
We encourage members of the community who are able to volunteer, and community organisations and LGAs that are in urgent need of volunteers to deliver essential services to register at https://emergency.volunteer.org.au.
Volunteering WA is committed to extending our assistance, resources and services to support our members and the community as a whole during this crisis.
Stay safe and let’s support each other.
Tina Williams | CEO Volunteering WA
Our News
National Volunteering Conference 2020
The National Volunteering Conference 2020 Organising Team would like to thank you for your patience while we investigate rescheduling the Conference. Unfortunately we are unable to confirm future dates at this time due to uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and its impact on the community sector.
Thank you once again for your patience, we will endeavour to update you as soon as possible. If you have any queries please contact the Conference team at nvc2020@volunteeringwa.org.au.
Corporate Volunteering
Does your organisation need assistance adapting to a more virtual environment? Or perhaps your organisation now has more time to improve your risk management plan, policies and procedures or cyber security?
Corporate volunteers are available and are looking for ways to assist community organisations remotely during this time of flux. Get in touch with our corporate team at corporate@volunteeringwa.org.au to brainstorm ideas about how corporate volunteers might assist your organisation.
Regional News
All regional hubs are operating remotely via phone and email and will continue providing support to Volunteer Involving Organisations and volunteers. New online and remote volunteering roles are being created through the hubs with growing levels of interest being shown by volunteers.
The Broome community have joined together and started a mutual aid group run by volunteers to help assist people in the community who are in isolation or at high risk with purchasing medication, groceries and other essential items.
Follow the hubs Facebook pages to keep up to date, Pilbara, Wheatbelt and Kimberley.
VIRA
Due to the current COVID-19 situation we understand that many Volunteer Involving Organisations may be changing the way volunteers are involved.
Pause opportunities if needed
If your organisation is not currently interviewing volunteers at the moment or has decided to temporarily stop recruiting volunteers then it's important to close any opportunities you may be listing online. For a step by step guide on how to pause volunteer recruitment online click here.
COVID-19 related opportunities
If you need to post opportunities that directly relate to supporting the community during the COVID-19 pandemic then we have added a new service focus to VIKTOR called ‘COVID-19’. Selecting this when listing a new opportunity will assist us with promoting your role.
Sector News
Volunteering Australia COVID-19 position papers
Volunteering Australia has published the two following policy position papers in order to clearly articulate our position around a number of issues regarding COVID-19 and the volunteering sector.
COVID-19 Position Paper No. 1: 'Volunteering and National Policy Settings' sets out our shared views on how national policy settings and messaging might need to adapt to help ensure volunteers are safeguarded during the COVID-19 emergency and that volunteers can be facilitated to best support the emergency response to COVID-19.
COVID-19 Position Paper No. 2: 'Safeguarding Volunteers and Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs)' sets out our shared views on how volunteers can be safeguarded during the COVID-19 emergency and how volunteers can best support the emergency response to COVID-19. The aim of this position paper is to help guide decision-making of Volunteer Involving Organisations and of volunteers in these very challenging times.
$159 million COVID-19 Relief Fund
The State Government, through Lotterywest, is committing $159 million into a COVID-19 Relief Fund to respond to the hardship being experienced by the Western Australian community as a result the COVID-19 pandemic.
Support is available for the Western Australian not-for-profit community sector and local government authorities to provide crisis and emergency relief services, services and activities for the benefit of the community during the pandemic crisis and organisations experiencing financial hardship as a result of a cancelled event resulting from COVID-19.
If you have a current grant with Lotterywest that has been disrupted as a result of the impact of COVID-19 please get in touch to explore your options.
Submission extension - Considerations for the future of the Volunteer Management Activity
The Department of Social Services (DSS) is seeking submissions to inform the development of options for the future of the Volunteer Management Activity (VMA) program post 30 June 2021.
DSS have developed a Discussion Paper to inform discussions on the redesign of the VMA. In light of the current COVID-19 situation, public submissions on future options for the VMA, including responses to issues raised in the Discussion Paper have been extended until 5.00pm (AEDT) Friday 3 April 2020.
Online volunteering
As more measures are put in place to ensure the health and wellbeing of individuals and the community due to COVID-19, we are seeing more in-person volunteering programs being suspended.
You may want to look at ways to involve volunteers in online volunteering as we are very likely to see an increase in the number of volunteers searching for these types of opportunities. Click the link below for a free online resource available for VIOs to develop an online volunteering program.
Plan for contingencies
Given the fast-changing situation it is important to focus on the immediate future in terms of what needs to happen now to support staff, volunteers and service users. After this immediate focus, it is essential to develop a business continuity plan for how your organisation will run if a significant proportion of staff or volunteers are unavailable or if there are interruptions to key services (such as IT) or suppliers.
Employment, contracts and insurance advice
Justice Connect is working on a range of initiatives to respond to emerging needs related to COVID-19. They are providing legal help to people and community organisations affected by the pandemic. Follow the link below to a briefing paper which gives guidance to community organisations on some of the most pressing issues raised by COVID-19, including employment, contracts and insurance.
Justice Connect is also running COVID-19 webinars to assist not-for-profits with a range of common legal issues faced by community organisations during these times.
Not-for-profits technology resources
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many tech organisations are offering extra resources and some of their products and services at a discounted rate or free of charge to help the workforce cope with the added strain. These include Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Dropbox and many more.
New Members
A warm welcome to our new and returning members:
We look forward to working with you.
Saturday Shout Out
Do you need help finding volunteers to fill a position in your organisation? Our Saturday feature, only for members, advertises your position on our Facebook page, with over 6,500 followers. Email nazreen@volunteeringwa.org.au to promote your volunteer vacancies.
Please ensure your volunteering role is on VIKTOR so that we can link the Facebook post straight through to the Volunteering WA website.
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