About volunteering
Volunteers enrich Queensland communities and help individuals and community organisations daily and in times of need. Through their efforts, volunteers build strong, healthy and inclusive communities. Volunteers, whether as individuals, groups or companies really can make a difference.
Volunteers have many faces in our communities. Volunteering can be undertaken across a variety of sectors, including but not limited to:
- community/welfare
- sport/recreation
- religious
- education/training/youth development
- health
- arts/culture
- business/professional/union
- emergency services
- environment/animal welfare
- law/justice/political
- foreign/international
Volunteering Policy
The Queensland Government has acknowledged the changing face of volunteering in Queensland by adopting a new statewide policy designed to support and sustain volunteer activity.
During the 2007 National Volunteer Week, the Queensland Government launched the new policy - Valuing Volunteers: The Queensland Government Policy on Volunteering 2007 – 2010
A significant initiative associated with this policy is the establishment of the Office for Volunteering in the Department of Communities.
The policy consists of three strategic goals developed to respond to challenges facing volunteering in the 21st century:
- Supporting Volunteers and Volunteering includes strategies to improve the ability of government and non-government organisations to understand and tap into contemporary volunteering patterns and explore new partnerships to strengthen volunteering, philanthropy and social enterprise.
- Building a Stronger Base for Volunteering includes actions to support volunteering as an inclusive activity that reflects the social diversity of the different backgrounds, values and aspirations within our community.
- Strengthening Rural and Regional Volunteering includes actions to respond to the needs of volunteers in rural and regional areas.
Value of volunteering
A report measuring the economic contributions of the state’s volunteers is now available. The report - produced by Associate Professor Dr Duncan Ironmonger, University of Melbourne - called The Economic Value of Volunteering in Queensland has for the first time, quantified the value of both formal (through an organisation or group) and informal (outside of an organisation) volunteering contributions to Queensland’s society.
Last updated: 23 June 2008.