What is volunteering?
Volunteering is a great way for people, regardless of their age, cultural background, location or circumstances, to get involved in the community and make a positive contribution.
Volunteering activities can be both informal and informal. Examples include:
- supporting children, young people, and parents – for example reading, homework tutoring or helping with driving practice
- helping people with household activities like gardening or grocery shopping
- participating in emergency management, response and community recovery from disasters
- a range of environmental activities such as citizen science (e.g. counting birds), environmental clean-up and wildlife land care
- contributing time and expertise every so often to community activities and events
- fundraising or advocating for a cause
- participating regularly in a structured way to support delivery of services.
Benefits
Volunteering is a great way for people, regardless of their age, cultural background, location or circumstances, to get involved in the community and make a positive contribution. In addition to the satisfaction of helping out for the benefit of others, there are many reasons people volunteer such as:
- Connecting with others and improving social ties
- Positively engaging and being active within the community
- Raising awareness and supporting important community issues
- Interacting with different cultures
- Contributing to social change
- Increased life satisfaction
- Finding a pathway to getting a job, course or training
- Developing new skills or gaining experience in a variety of roles
- Exploring different career and job opportunities.
Volunteering is a wonderful way to support the community, develop a sense of purpose and meaning in life and to get out and have fun. We encourage a safe return to volunteer participation.
For more information on how to obtain necessary checks for volunteering, please visit our Who Can Help section.