FamilyCare in North Central Victoria supports individuals, families and communities by promoting wellbeing, resilience and optimism. They do this through child and family services, as well as disability and carer support. Volunteers play a vital role in delivering these services and a $1,246 grant from Telstra’s Connected Communities grant program funded ‘Better Impacts’ – a volunteer management software now making a positive difference to the organisation, its clients and the volunteers.
FamilyCare has more than 45 volunteers and continues to welcome more to its ranks. The new ‘Better Impacts’ software successfully manages them from application to assignment, streamlining a time-consuming process that has prevented volunteers from progressing in the past. All existing volunteers received training and support to download the app, create accounts and access their personalised profiles. The app now enables volunteers to easily contact the agency, check volunteer rosters, record professional skills and access e-learning modules to support their training. With many volunteers over 65, building skills on the app has also been a valuable opportunity to develop their digital literacy.
The agency is seeing multiple benefits from the new volunteer management system, including improved recruitment for its annual Christmas Appeal fundraising initiative. A simplified, online application was made available to 50 community members, along with existing volunteers, for this one-off opportunity. Volunteers could easily view the roster and allocate themselves to a suitable shift.
The rostering system also enabled the creation of new volunteer roles to address transport needs within the CALD community. Volunteers were able to assign themselves to transport clients to a valuable parenting program, helping to overcome a key barrier to participation.
“Many volunteers have advised they now feel more capable in the digital world and are now using other apps as part of their day-to-day lives,” said Andrea Tuohey, Volunteer and Fundraising Co-ordinator. “There were challenges”, she continued, “as the training required small groups with individual support. However, the ongoing benefits outweigh this and demonstrate it was a good investment of time, as the work being done by our volunteers has helped build stronger individual and community resilience. Some of the ongoing benefits to the community from having streamlined and efficient volunteer engagement are better health and social wellbeing, building resilience and more volunteers being involved with new opportunities through our volunteer diverse and inclusive agency.”
Telstra’s Connected Communities Grant Program seeks to build digital literacy and capability in communities to foster liveability, sustainability and resilience.
“Volunteers are such a critical resource to communities and so supporting organisations to provide them with a seamless experience for engagement, efficiency and building digital literacy skills and confidence that will enable them to contribute more, is a big win for the community,” commented Jenny Gray, Telstra Regional Manager.
The introduction of Better Impacts enabled FamilyCare to engage more volunteers and support older community members in developing valuable digital skills – creating a more connected and resilient North Central Victoria and highlighting the importance of programs that are helping rural communities boost their digital confidence and improve access to essential services.