Farewell to Volunteering Victoria

When I started at Volunteering Victoria (VV) in early 2018, I was most looking forward to professional challenges, a nicer commute, and an opportunity to support a sector that I believed passionately in.

It’s safe to say I had no idea what I was in for. Taking time to reflect on the past 8+ years as I’ve been wrapping up my role, it’s incredible how much we as a volunteer sector have changed, grown and challenged ourselves.

Since 2018, the Victorian volunteer sector has collectively:

When I first started at VV, informal volunteering wasn’t really on anyone’s radar. It naturally accelerated over the pandemic, which forced us to create better language for it and increase our understanding of its value. As the regulated world continues to grow more complex, people remain passionate about causes and issues, and will find ways to give regardless. Those of us in the formal volunteering space need to learn how to work in harmony with this.

When I started at VV, no states or territories had completed State of Volunteering Reports (SOVRs). Now here in Victoria, we have produced two SOVRs, alongside a National Snapshot. In the academic sphere, we’ve shifted from recruitment focused frameworks – such as the Volunteering Function Index, which looked at motivation – to focusing on the impact of volunteering on individuals (shout out to the research my soon-to-be colleague Sarah Wilson is doing on Mattering).

Many of these things feel intuitive to us in the sector, but stronger research allows us to most effectively make our case to policy makers and leadership.

It’s hard to believe that when I started at VV, we were using an old teleconferencing system – Zoom was still a word associated with rocket ships. I hope that, as a sector, we will have the innovation to embrace digital transformation and use to it streamline systems, allowing us to focus on what we do best: building relationships.

Our challenge will be avoiding systems fatigue, continuously centring the end user, and ensuring that our use of AI aligns with our values and ethics.

While there are some tried-and-true volunteers who don’t need a big motivator (I, for instance, am a true volunteer dork), I really suspect the Brisbane 2032 Olympics will prompt a surge in volunteering – akin to Matildas fever in 2023.

By 2032, demands on our time may have shifted again, and we may see more organisations adopting four-day work weeks (a shout out to our friends at Our Community House), enabling people to contribute in new and flexible ways.

Corporate volunteering has come a long way since I started at VV. Back then, very few team-based volunteering days were fee for service. Now, it is very much the norm.

Having mastered that and hopefully harnessing the power of AI, I believe we’ll see better matching of individuals and organisations, enabling corporates to contribute in skills-based ways.

Talking, listening, and coming together are – and will continue to be – more important than ever. We frequently hear that networking (hearing from and connecting with others) is one of the most valued things we do. That’s why I love a good podcast: there’s nothing quite like two interesting people chatting in your ears on your commute to work!

When I first started at VV, volunteer management podcasts weren’t really a thing. Now there are several, including Advancing the Profession by Rob Jackson and Making a Ruckus by Tracey O’Neill. As we lean further into hybrid ways of working, these kinds of conversations are especially important to ensure we’re exposed to new voices and ideas.

And while not quite the same, if you’re keen for a trip down memory lane, the old PLV Talks webinars (early showcases of sector voices in webinar form) are still available on the VV website.

Hearing older generations claim that young people don’t volunteer or join groups is one of the biggest misconceptions I’ve come across during my time in the volunteering sector. Thankfully, this narrative is increasingly being debunked. In fact, the most recent State of Volunteering research in Victoria shows that young people volunteer at the highest rate of any age group.

Sadly, their contribution is still too often misunderstood or tokenised. I believe this will (and must) change soon and that young people will inspire us in new and exciting ways by giving their time towards a better future.

This may be a controversial prediction, given the complexity of working across states and territories with different legislative environments. Still, I am an optimist, and I believe these challenges can be overcome, enabling more streamlined pathways to participation.

I’m biased, of course – but during my time at VV I’ve seen many colleagues come and go, and they’ve all had one thing in common: being absolute legends. I’ve been blessed to work with such passionate, committed people who go above and beyond to support the sector – and still manage to have a laugh along the way.

This is farewell, not goodbye. I’m sure that a lot of our paths will cross in my new role at Volunteering Australia.  I’ll be looking for lots of opportunities to connect and work together to achieve the aims of the National Strategy for Volunteering.

For now, I’ll leave you with a picture of Victoria’s cutest volunteer 😉 (another product of my time at VV).