Media release – Volunteering Tasmania, 21 February 2024
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Volunteering Tasmania is seeking a commitment from the major parties and support from independents to investing in the critical volunteering industry through sustainable peak body funding.
In the last four years, formal volunteering participation has dropped by 11%. This represents a loss of 15,000 workers in the face of increasing community demand for the services and supports delivered by volunteers.
332,100 Tasmanians over the age of 15 years volunteer, making Tasmania’s volunteer workforce the largest in the state. Yet structural funding challenges have escalated a decline in available formal volunteers. If this trend continues, we will see a gap of 42% between the demand for and supply of volunteers by 2029.
Tasmania’s volunteering industry is in critical need of support and its peak body is not adequately funded to provide the programs and best practice infrastructure required to reverse the downward trend in formal volunteer participation.
A commitment to invest in sustainable peak body funding is a commitment to stand alongside Tasmania’s volunteering industry. It is a commitment that will see candidates recognise the true impact of volunteering and the need to invest in peak body leadership to deliver, guide and empower place-based and community-led responses to community need.
68.9% of our population over 15 years volunteers, yet the barriers to formal volunteer participation are becoming insurmountable.
We cannot assume that volunteers will always be there, we need to act now to ensure that our communities aren’t left without support as the need for volunteer support increases.
We are asking those who volunteer, work with volunteers, or see the benefit that volunteers bring to their communities, to support Tasmania’s volunteering industry by writing to their local candidate.
Information on how can be found here: https://volunteeringtas.org.
