New Australian research on the value of volunteering
[19 December 2006 | Dr Anton Mischewski, The Centre for Volunteering]
A new piece of research on the value of volunteering estimates that voluntary welfare services in Australia are worth more than double the value of services provided by all levels of government in Australia. The report, Exploring the economic and social value of present patterns of volunteering in Australia has just been released by the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
This report compares for the first time, results from two key pieces of volunteering research: the Voluntary work survey (2000) and the Time use survey (1997).
The new report looks at three important aspects of volunteering:
- The effect of volunteering on direct government expenditure on services.
- The contribution of volunteering to social capital.
- How volunteering might provide a pathway to economic, social and civic participation.
There are five key sections. They cover the public interest and policy significance in voluntary activity, what constitutes volunteering?, the beneficiaries of volunteering, profiles of Australian volunteers and international comparisons.
One of the topics covered includes a broader definition of voluntary activity to include formal work with organisations, informal assistance to people living outside one's household or community, providing unpaid care to adults with disabilities and the frail elderly, and unpaid services to emergency services. Men and women's pathways to volunteering are discussed. These patterns suggest that men are more likely to volunteer for organisations that help the community at large or young people and women volunteer for education, religious and community welfare agencies which assist young children, other women, the elderly and people with disabilities. Other interesting trends to emerge concern the time Australians spend volunteering. Since 1987, volunteers in their 40s has remained largely the same, younger people have marginally increased, while people aged in their 60s have more than doubled their time spent volunteering.
Formal volunteering and informally helping others helps build up social interaction over the long term rather than on a daily activity basis. The research identifies an emerging problem area of those people informally caring for adults – especially women on low incomes – are at risk of becoming socially isolated.
Download Exploring the economic and social value of present patterns of volunteering in Australia.