Funding Changes for Volunteer Resource Centres

An announcement from the Department of Social Services that volunteer support services will no longer be eligible for their own pool of grants funding demonstrates the Federal Government’s continued undervaluing of the role of volunteering in building strong and resilient communities.

Volunteering Australia Chief Executive Officer, Ms Adrienne Picone said that the Strengthening Communities Grants Program is currently the primary source of funding for volunteer support services – but that the changes outlined in today’s DSS meeting would make such funding much harder to access. “What we learned today is the Strong and Resilient Communities grants program does not provide specific funding for volunteer support services,” Ms Picone said. “This is yet another example of the deprioritisation of volunteer management by the Government and a lack of recognition for the role volunteer support services play in promoting, resourcing and supporting volunteering in local communities across Australia.”

“We are concerned that this proposal does not fully consider the impact of not providing discrete grants for the infrastructure that supports volunteering and volunteer involving organisations. Volunteering Australia and the sector as a whole feel their concerns have not been heard and the fact that volunteering contributes more value to the community than many other major industries, which receive substantial funding from Government, continues to be ignored.”

“Effective, safe, productive and efficient volunteering does not “just happen” and it is not free. It requires expertise, leadership and local knowledge, as well as effective workforce management. Volunteer support services provide infrastructure in communities to lead, enable and build capacity to recruit and retain volunteers in a wide variety of organisations and services, from the human services and civil society groups, to environmental, animal welfare and sporting groups.”

Here is the full motion:

Senators Lambie and Pratt: To move—That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) pursuant to a decision of the 2016-17 Federal Budget, the Department of Social Services is currently undertaking a redesign of the Strengthening Communities Grants, to be known as the Strong and Resilient Communities Grants from 1 January 2018,
(ii) the Strengthening Communities Grants currently provide around $18 million per year to projects which address disadvantage and build opportunity in communities around Australia,
(iii) under the current Grants program, there is a specific funding stream for volunteer management programs, which in 2017 will fund volunteer support services in local communities to a total of around $7.4 million,
(iv) the Department of Social Services has proposed that this volunteer management stream of grants funding will be abolished from 1 January 2018, meaning volunteer support services will be forced to compete with other worthwhile community services and removing any guarantee that they will be funded at all,

(v) this is the latest reduction in funding allocated to volunteer management since the decision was made to transfer responsibility for volunteering from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to the Department of Social Services in 2014, a move which volunteering peak bodies and representatives opposed,

(vi) the national peak body for volunteering, Volunteering Australia, states that this move will “rip the heart out of local volunteer support services”, organisations which play an important role in Australian communities by leading, enabling and building capacity to recruit and retain volunteers in a wide variety of organisations and services, from the human services and the arts to environmental, animal welfare and sporting groups,
(vii) approximately 5.8 million Australians, or 31 per cent of the population, volunteer, with Dr Lisel O’Dwyer of Flinders University estimating their annual contribution to Australia as $290 billion,
(viii) volunteering plays an important role in delivering the priorities of the Government, with volunteers contributing many thousands of hours per year to the aged care workforce, the disability services, schools and hospitals, art galleries, libraries and sporting clubs, and with volunteering often acting as a driver in bolstering economic participation, mitigating isolation and loneliness and increasing social inclusion and participation,
(ix) while volunteering is defined as “time willingly given, for the common good and without financial gain”, it does not happen free, and requires the investment of resources in volunteer support services in order to maintain a professional, responsive and efficient volunteer workforce,
(x) the withdrawal of funding to volunteer management services will threaten the viability of the thousands of volunteering organisations and will have a huge impact on the community; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) congratulate community-based volunteer support services for the work that they do to support strong, healthy and resilient Australian communities through an effective and professional volunteer workforce, and
(ii) recognise the importance of funding volunteer management services and Volunteering Australia’s campaign to retain funding for volunteer management as part of the Federal Budget.