TRANSCRIPT
As awareness of social, political and environmental issues has grown through our globalised internet age, it seems obvious that people would be devoting more of their time into volunteering for these issues.
So, why then are we seeing fewer people than ever contributing to these causes in their free time?
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, over a third of Australian adults were volunteers between 2002 and 2010 but there's been a significant decline in participation down to 24.8 per cent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a third of people between the ages of 40 and 54 volunteer through organisations, the participation drops significantly for the younger demographic, with only one in five of those aged 15 to 24 years old choosing to volunteer.
Simone Hasker from Volunteering Queensland says the latest numbers are very concerning.
"The last sort of official data that we have in the period up to 2020. We know that volunteering has dropped off across the board, except for the really older demographic 70 and above the rest have dropped off but its use that we're really concerned about. They have dropped off at a rate four times as great as the other parts of the demographic which is really concerning. And we know that it basically dropped off a cliff during COVID and we don't see it recovering."
According to research from national advocacy group Volunteering Australia, more than six million Australians are still volunteering each year but numbers have not yet returned to what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their latest data from April of 2022 estimates 1.86 million fewer volunteers at the start of 2022 compared to pre-COVID.
Juan Lakonawa is a 20 year old international student from Indonesia studying at the University of Western Australia and he also serves as program coordinator for the university's Micro Volunteering program.
He says volunteering helped him connect to the community.
"When I first arrived in Perth, I was curious what I can do at university. And I found that volunteering offers so many opportunities for students. And yeah, I enjoyed giving back to the community and doing some simple but sort of meaningful tasks and finding your people, making new friends. And yeah, it's just really rewarding."
National Student Volunteer Week runs from the 7th to the 13th of August and volunteer organisers like Juan are wanting to spread the word about these benefits to fellow students .
In addition to social benefits, a 2019 study from the online employment marketplace SEEK found that up to 85 per cent of employers believe volunteering is just as credible as paid work, with the majority 92 per cent saying that relevant volunteering experience gives a candidate an edge in a job interview.
But how can volunteer services better attract youth participants?
Mr Lakonawa says initiatives such as the U-W-A's weekly Micro Volunteering program allow flexibility for students who might feel intimidated by lengthy commitments.
"I think one of the issues is that people are scared to commit, because sometimes we know that volunteering requires people to commit for example, for six months or for the whole year. That is the thing, that Micro Volunteering does. We don't require that. That's why I think we attract a lot of students to come. Because it's just one off events. You can come only for a week, you can come regularly. It's up to you. And yeah, I think that's what we need to be aware of. If we try to attract people, try to be flexible because people have commitments."
Charlie Crozier is the 25-year-old co-founder and CEO of VOLI - a start-up that is seeking to innovate the volunteering sector and help boost participation.
He says one the key issues is that younger generations feel passionate but often don't know how to get involved with causes they care about.
"It's not due to lack of intent. Like there's a number of well cited research papers showing that Gen Z in particular, are more environmentally and socially conscious than the generations that have come before us. However, the question remains quite consistent of where do I even start?"
Mr Crozier has been working in collaboration with academics from Monash University to develop a piece of software that will streamline access to volunteer services and provide an attractive all-in-one solution for young people used to the convenience of modern apps.
He says the proposed app, VOLI, will give its users a clear understanding of their volunteering options, and the addition of a volunteer passport will allow people to forego lengthy application processes.
"Everyone's first instinct is just to go straight to Google and type in volunteering opportunities there may, you're bombarded with a heap of different web pages and are quite literally overwhelmed with not knowing where to go. On top of that, if you do make it through and you find a cause that's meaningful to you or you think is interesting, a lot of the time there's weeks or even months turnover to fill in an application and submit that and for the cause to get back to you. So we are trying to integrate somewhat of like a volunteer passport into the app where you can fill in your details once and then be matched with the causes, quite literally the click of a button."
Meanwhile, ahead of the National Student Volunteer Week, the federal government announced on Friday [[4th August]], an additional investment of $10 million into the volunteering sector to aid with a lack of resources.
They will offer grants of between $1000 and $5000 that can be used to help volunteers buy equipment or reimburse fuel, transport and training costs.
However, Ms Hasker from Volunteering Queensland says the value that volunteers are generating is worth billions and the government needs to offer more support otherwise they may be forced to step up and offer the services themselves.
"I can't even begin to emphasise how desperate our ecosystem is. In terms of Queensland there are three million people volunteering, that we know about, in structured organisations and they represent the value of, at last count $84 billion. And that's a massive amount. And of course, if all these services fall away that we've come to depend on then it's the government that's going to have to step in and do the work that people are already doing out of the goodness of their heart."
Ms Hasker says that - despite the recent decline in numbers - she's confident that the younger generations will offer the sector a bright future.
"I think the youth of today, the students of today, they want to do the right thing. They want to get out and help their communities it's just up to the structured organizations to adapt to their needs and come along for the ride but the willingness is definitely still there I have lots of hope for the future."
