The sustainability of emergency management volunteering has been a focus of management, policy, and research within the emergency management sector for decades. Despite this, the challenges and barriers that were identified 20 years ago largely remain today, and if anything, have deepened further.
This shows that the number, type and complexity of issues and barriers for supporting sustainable emergency volunteering have so far outweighed the ability for traditional approaches to overcome them.
This project will confront these challenges by designing (Phase 1 - Design) and undertaking (Phase 2 - Action) a collaborative and iterative process that:
- reframes and reimagines emergency management volunteering challenges and opportunities in different ways compared to the past to reveal new kinds of solutions
- identifies and undertakes action research that supports volunteers and organisations to engage with and learn from many different perspectives and experiences, and to create opportunities to influence the sector toward investing in new, innovative, and sustainable approaches
- develops and refines a National Volunteer Sustainability Blueprint as a living document to guide strategic, national-level, and collaborative action to support emergency management volunteers (the people), volunteering (the activities) and volunteerism (the culture).
The project will be undertaken in conjunction with the AFAC Volunteer Management Technical Group, AFAC Workforce Management Group, and Australian Emergency Management Volunteer Forum, as well as other key stakeholder groups, and in line with the AFAC Volunteer Inclusion Guidelines. The project will also be aligned to the National Strategy for Volunteering, 2023-2033.
This project will provide tangible and actionable guidance for volunteer-involving organisations in the emergency management sector, and the sector as a whole, to make changes to improve the sustainability of emergency management volunteering into the future.
