PROJECTS

Out of the Box Volunteering

The ‘Out of the Box Volunteering’ Project (OBV) at the Esperance Volunteer Resource Centre is a collaborative initiative between four Volunteer Centres including:

Peel Volunteer Resource Centre Inc
Volunteer South West Inc
Albany & Regional Volunteer Service Inc
Esperance Volunteer Resource Centre

Volunteer involvement is an essential part of most organisations and yet it can be difficult to recruit and retain volunteers. This project combines the expertise and resources of these four organisations to revolutionise the way we understand and engage in volunteering. OBV was been funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services. This project aims to educate, equip and support regional non-profits to expand their current volunteering opportunities to increase connection with potential volunteers they may not currently be engaging with. Specific target groups were set by the Department of Social Services, these included:

Young people aged 12-18 years
People with disability and/or mental health issues
Vulnerable women
People who are unemployed
First Nations people
Newly arrived migrants
People seeking a tree/sea change
Transient workers

Through this project, EVRC is exploring new ways to encourage volunteer engagement by identifying current challenges and potential solutions, with a goal to increase the chances of success for Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIO’s) with finding new volunteers and keeping them engaged.

Good Will Globetrotters

The 'Goodwill Globetrotters' Project (GG) includes working intensively with Volunteer-Involving Organisations in Esperance and surrounding areas to design and implement flexible, short-term volunteer opportunities suitable for the transient tourist population and time-poor locals looking for community engagement.

The project introduced a new approach to volunteering in Esperance by providing strategies and guidance to local VIO's to assist them with developing short-term and one-off commitment volunteering opportunities that will appeal to travellers and time-poor locals.

Project activities include:

Reshaping how VIO's structure their volunteer programs to be more flexible, with short-term and one-off opportunities;
Tackling barriers present in existing on-boarding processes and seeking to minimise the effort from both VIO's and volunteers when it comes to short term roles; and
Mitigating obstacles and tracking successes.

Anticipated project outcomes involved:

A greater variety of people taking on volunteer roles, increasing community strength, resilience, and inclusiveness.
Increased percentage of youth volunteers, especially with a disability or from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Stronger relationship between EVRC, VIO's, volunteers, and the wider Esperance community.