7 New Resources for Volunteer Leaders | October 2024

Discover new resources for volunteer leaders, including the latest reports:

#1 Sector Wellbeing Resilience Hub 

The Community Well now includes resources for National Safe Work Month that are specifically designed to support safe and healthy not-for-profit workplaces and teams. 

The theme for 2024 National Safe Work Month is Mental Health at Work, highlighting the vital connection between mental health and work. Safe, healthy working environments can act as a protective factor for mental health.  

Find out more and access the resources on the Community Well website.

#2 Child Safety Handbook and App

The NSW Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook is a free, online resource that helps parents, carers and teachers on a range of topics to support child safety – from preventative measures at home, to safety outdoors; from cybersafety, to dealing with peer pressures. It includes important content from the eSafety Commissioner, NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW Police Force, Fire and Rescue NSW, Transport for NSW, State Emergency Services, NSW Department of Communities and Justice, and more.

Download this resource on the Child Safety Hubb website.

#3 Screening Checks Guides

The recently updated Screening Checks Guides for each state and territory consolidate the information on Working with Children checks, Police checks, and NDIS Worker Screening checks.

Even where there is no legal requirement to perform screening checks, it is important for not-for-profit organisations to be informed to ensure they are taking appropriate steps to fulfil their responsibility to provide and maintain a safe environment for their employees, volunteers, and clients.  

Visit the website to find out more about your organisation’s key obligations.

#4 Firesticks

Firesticks is upskilling the next generation of practitioners through our Indigenous Fire and Land Management Mentoring Program. They support communities in building their capacity to lead Indigenous land management projects across the country, to regionally reinstate cultural knowledge practices through Firesticks practitioners, Elders, community leaders and local knowledge holders. 

Submit an Expression of Interest on the Firesticks website.

#5 Movember

Movember is an annual event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. Its goal is to “change the face of men’s health” by raising awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men’s suicide.

For more information about how you can support this worthy cause, visit the Movember website.

#6 Gambling Harm Experienced by Children Exposed to Parental Gambling

This study (May 2024) by Australian researchers presents one of the few empirical studies exploring the broad ranging impacts of regular parental gambling experienced by children.  

The focus of this study was to better understand gambling harm directly attributed to regular parental gambling in key areas of child wellbeing – financial, psychological, interpersonal wellbeing and intergenerational transmission of problem gambling. 

The results of the study highlight the complex nature of the dynamics related to regular parental gambling in families, the nature of adverse childhood experiences and their long-lasting consequences. The study found that childhood experience of harm due to parental gambling had negative impacts in adulthood, including increasing the risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and intimate partner violence.  

Parental problem gambling was found to be associated with children’s own lifetime problem gambling, suggesting that problem gambling can be transmitted across generations. The study also points to multiple opportunities for supports and intervention that may improve the wellbeing of families and children exposed to gambling harm. 

For further information and to download the study, visit the Springer website.

#7 Longitudinal gambling risk transitions: evidence from a nationally representative Australian sample  

New research from the Australian National University (April 2024) investigated transitions between higher and lower severity of problem gambling risk over time.  

The research found that increased gambling risk is related to financial hardship, age, gender, education, chronic health conditions, alcohol consumption, socioeconomic disadvantage, status and lack of control over one’s life. 

The researchers examined longitudinal and population-representative Australian data to find predictors of gambling risk that may reduce the risk of transitioning into more severe gambling. The results show that while, for most Australians, gambling risk remains stable over time, lower levels of education, younger age, and psychosocial factors are predictive of an increase in risk of gambling harm. 

This study highlights the need to target intervention and education initiatives towards those at increased risk, and can be used to inform public health policies aimed at reducing gambling harm at the population level. 

Access the full article at Taylor & Francis Online.

More Resources

Find all your volunteer management resources in one place, including editable forms, eLearning modules and training videos. Visit the Knowledge Base library.