National Volunteer Week: 14-20 May 2007
Australia's 6.3 million volunteers will be celebrated during National Volunteer Week, 14-20 May 2007.
National Volunteer Week provides a national focus for organisations wanting to recruit volunteers and promote the value of volunteering to the community.
This year's theme for National Volunteer Week is See the Change ... Volunteering. Moving on from the 2006 theme Change Your World ... Start Now, this year's theme refocuses from the personal benefits of volunteering to activating benefits for community and groups.
Find out what's happening in NSW during National Volunteer Week.
National Volunteer Week promotional items
If you registered with Volunteering Australia (VA) for posters and stickers before 27 March, your promo pack will be sent out at the end of April. If you were not able to register with VA before 27 March, do not despair, the posters are now available to download from the Volunteering Australia website.
Working with this year's theme: See the Change ... Volunteering
The theme for National Volunteer Week 2007 is See the Change ... Volunteering. Use this theme when considering ideas for promoting your organisation and projects, planning events and any other activities up to, during and following National Volunteer Week 2007.
n 2007, the 'key recruitment message' for potential volunteers is that their work will be visible and tangible. Show how your organisation or program is creating change for your stakeholders and in your area of interest. Or show them how their help can make the change visible.
To help plan events and promotions, break down the words to make them fit your needs. Think about what meanings these words could have for your organisation, your present and future volunteers. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
See - visualise, activate, make happen, reality, now, future, forward-moving, tangible, clearly, pathway, tourism, sports, culture, arts, recreation ...
Change - improve, develop, extend, transform, share, learn, train, choose, control, empower, grow, opportunity, act, environment, education, wellbeing, welfare ...
Volunteering - individual, collective, community, personal, group, responsibility, influence, contribution, impact ... get involved, sign up now, come to a meeting, introduction sessions, try it out, short- term or long- term, project-based, participate in your passion, do what you love, meet new people, make friends, learn skills, contact us now, come in or call ...
History and purpose of National Volunteer Week
National Volunteer Week provides a national focus for organisations wanting to recruit volunteers and promote the value of volunteering to the community. Each year, Volunteering Australia adopts a different theme that is launched during the week and used for the following 12 months.
Any organisation involving volunteers is welcome to participate in the week and use the theme to promote volunteering in their local area.
Volunteering Australia inherited the coordination of National Volunteer Week from one of its predecessor organisations. Since this transition in the early 90s, Volunteering Australia has continued to set both the dates and the theme each year, as well as providing support and resources.
In Australia, National Volunteer Week is celebrated in May, from the Monday immediately after Mother's Day to the following Sunday.
While NVW focuses on recruitment, International Volunteer Day (IVD), the annual sister event on the volunteering calendar, is a UN-endorsed day celebrated on December 5, and has become the time to recognise and thank volunteers.
The dates for National Volunteer Week for future years are:
- 12–18 May 2008
- 11–17 May 2009
- 10–16 May 2010