A day without volunteers – what would it be like?
By Lisa Saremel
It's the height of summer in Sydney. It's 39° C on a smoky, cloudy, grey day in February with scorching hot winds ideal for accelerating fires sparked early in the day by irresponsible arsonists. By lunchtime, an infernal blaze is threatening parts of the northern suburbs.
Meanwhile, thousands of housebound elderly people are without food in their own homes, dozens of sports fans at a stadium and hundreds of young people at a music festival collapse without any immediately available medical attention, and every person in crisis who dials a counsellor for help hears nothing but a recorded message
It could be apocalyptic but, in fact, it's just a small part of a potentially huge and desperate scenario, and one we hope we will never have to face – a day without volunteers …
Over six million Australian volunteers contribute to the operations of emergency and community services. As well, thousands of not-for-profit organisations rely on volunteers, and it is difficult to imagine how society could function effectively without these enthusiastic volunteers, even if only for one day.
As an example, let's talk about surf lifesaving. In 2005, an independent study found that, without the efforts of surf lifesavers, 485 people would drown annually on our beaches and 313 people would suffer severe injuries through surf accidents, compared with the actual rate of about 60 drownings which occur each year in Australia.
The economic impact of the loss of volunteers across different sectors would also be enormous. The above study into surf lifesaving estimated the value of its volunteers at $1.4 billion per year. This does not include the immeasurable difference safer beaches make to our burgeoning tourism industry.
Fundraising is a major volunteering activity comprising 56% of all voluntary roles, followed by management, teaching and administration. Subtract the invaluable cash raised by these fundraising volunteers for a single day, and the bottom-line impact on the 700,000 not-for-profit organisations in Australia would be quite severe, affecting their ability to provide essential services such as community services and health.
Meanwhile many sections of the community that benefit regularly from the work of volunteers would go without support. This includes Meals on Wheels, aged and palliative care visits, crisis telephone counselling, ESL programs and literacy tutoring for children, and sports and fitness training.
Globally, the loss of volunteers for one day would have far-reaching consequences, as critical health care, the provision of sanitation, education, and other basic services would be dramatically disrupted or even halted as volunteers in developing countries ceased their involvement.
Perhaps the possible impact of the loss of the nation's volunteers should be borne in mind when government is thinking about how best to compensate volunteers who often contribute thousands of dollars of their own money annually in order to stay involved.
As indicated by the Cost of Volunteering report (2006), volunteers themselves do not want payment for their services. The responses from volunteers in the report have been quite emphatic about not receiving remuneration as this would obviously no longer make them 'volunteers'. Yet suggestions such as tax breaks, reimbursement of travelling expenses and other costs are all valid ways to assist volunteer participation. Society can not afford to lose them …
Sources
ABS Voluntary Work Survey, 2000
Cost of Volunteering Report, Volunteering Australia, 2006
The Centre
for Volunteering [ABN 28 002 416 024]
Level 2, 228 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW 2000
T: 02 9261 3600 | F: 02 9261 4033 | E: info@volunteering.com.au
www.volunteering.com.au