Community stories: 17 July 2024
Following Black Summer, the Women’s Resource Centre (WRC) identified the need for more volunteers around women’s issues in Bega Valley. So, they decided to create a role for a Volunteer Program and Activities Coordination Project Worker.
Among the responsibilities of the role were:
- Revising induction processes and forms;
- Maintaining regular communication with volunteers;
- Ongoing support and supervision of volunteers;
- Developing rosters;
- Designing recruitment and workshop flyers;
- Liaising with workshop facilitators; and
- Liaising with other community organisations about volunteer opportunities.
Jade Simpson was recruited into the paid role, working 21 hours a week, supported through FRRR’s IRCF program. Bringing a wealth of insight on the local community and exceptional interpersonal skills to the role, Jade’s been highly successful in recruiting and retaining volunteers at the WRC. During the project, 21 women volunteered more than 350 hours of time at the Centre, taking on roles such as meet and greet, gardening, organising and tidying the Centre, providing admin support and contributing to the Southern Women’s Group historical research project. Jade has also been instrumental in the facilitation of more than 17 workshops. Several volunteers have now become regular weekly contributors, while others have since transitioned to work opportunities.
Jade says that a key element of success has been training, both for herself and WRC Manager Jane Hughes, in addition to the volunteers. Topics included grant writing; suicide prevention; digital mentoring; volunteer recruitment and retention; and domestic violence awareness.
According to Jade, the key to success however was having a clear plan for engagement and sharing the outcomes from the increased volunteering. This included speaking with local media to promote volunteering and at events such as Mental Health Week, the National volunteer Week Celebration, the ‘Many Hands’ Volunteer Expo and to Bega Valley Shire Council.
Having this role allowed Jane to focus on efficiently running the busy Centre in her own limited work hours and to be more readily available to the women accessing the service. The impact of the role has been so significant that WRC has been successful in obtaining further funding to maintain the role for a greater length of time.
“Jade has been incredible, the project has significantly increased volunteer engagement at the WRC. Her hard work has made it possible for us to provide essential training opportunities, to facilitate stronger community engagement and crucially, to work towards securing the continuity of the volunteer coordinator role through various grant applications,” Jane told us.
