Newsletter 4 - Out of uniform

Newsletter 4 - July 2015

Progress update

In the time since our last newsletter, the main focus of the project has shifted from reviewing literature on volunteering and using it to better understand non-traditional volunteering in Australia, to conducting our own case studies. A number of key activities have been undertaken in this time:

• Our main activity has been working on case studies. Our pilot case study of Be Ready Warrandyte has been completed and two further case studies are underway (Community On Ground Assistance and Volunteering Queensland’s EV-CREW service). Another two case studies are currently being set up (see more below).
• Two key end user engagement activities undertaken were the project teleconference in March 2015 that focused on case selection criteria, and our participation in the CRC's second Research Advisory Forum (RAF) in Sydney in April 2015.
• Two manuscripts have been submitted to academic journals based on our reviews of informal volunteerism and major trends in volunteering. Copies are available from the project team by request. A conference paper was also submitted, and accepted, for the Bushfire & Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC 2015 Research Forum.
• Our two ongoing PhD students (Billy Haworth and Fiona Jennings) have both achieved major milestones in their projects, and one of our end users – Julie Molloy from Volunteering Queensland – made the leap into research and began a PhD with in March. 

Case studies in preparedness, recovery and spontaneous volunteer management

The pilot case study of Be Ready Warrandyte has been completed and a final report will be circulated soon. The report focuses on the roles and relationships of emergency management organisations engaged with this community-led bushfire preparedness project as well as the project’s reported benefits and impacts, its strengths and enabling factors, challenges risks and limitations, and arising opportunities and challenges for community-led preparedness and planning in emergency management generally.

A second case study of Community On Ground Assistance (COGA) is in progress. COGA is “a community and agency partnership that provides flexible and responsive assistance and support to people recovering from the Victorian Bushfires in 2009” including property clean up, building repairs and technical advice. It also provides tailored corporate volunteer opportunities.

A third case study has begun to examine the development and utilisation of Volunteering Queensland’s Emergency Volunteering Community Responses to Extreme Weather (EV-CREW) service. Since 2008, the EV-CREW service has matched over 30,000 spontaneous and pre-registered volunteers to requests for assistance in disaster recovery, and more recently in disaster preparedness and prevention. The EV-CREW system is now in place in the ACT and is set to be activated later this year in Tasmania as well.

Two additional case studies are currently being set up that are focused on different volunteering aspects of the Sampson Flat bushfires in South Australia early this year. The first will examine the response of not-for-profit groups, particularly faith-based groups that were active in the recovery phase following the fires. The second will examine the role of emergent animal rescue groups in the response and recovery phases, many of which were coordinated via Facebook. This case study is being undertaken in close collaboration with another CRC project – Managing Animals in Disaster (MAiD).  

End user perspective – Georgina Goodrich, Department of Community and Social Inclusion, South Australia

The South Australian Sampson Flat Bushfire of January 2015, affected several small, disparate communities. Surveying affected community members has been the focus of previous studies.

An upcoming case study of the Out of Uniform project, however, will look at the work of not-for-profit agencies and groups who came forward to assist with recovery tasks, such as clean up and fencing. These ‘extending’ groups, some faith-based, do not have formal agreements with the State Government so work independently.

Recovery is best served by collaborative effort across tiers of government, not for profits and the corporate sector. This case study will focus on how to maximise relationships between government and not for profits to achieve best results for those affected by a disaster.

PhD student reports

Billy Haworth - Volunteered Geographic Information, Community Engagement and Bushfire Preparation in Tasmania

Billy is now over half way through his PhD project. He is forging ahead with two manuscripts accepted for publication in peer reviewed journals this year (see below). He recently conducted fieldwork interviewing representatives of various emergency management organisations from five Australian states to gain professional perspectives on the potential opportunities and challenges of VGI in disaster preparation. He presented on his project at the CRC Research Advisory Forum in early April and, with the support of the CRC, presented at the Association of American Geographer’s conference in Chicago in late April. In early May, Billy gave a seminar on his research at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he spent a week working and learning in the research center's citizen science lab. Recognising his recently-published review article on VGI and disaster management, Billy was awarded the University of Sydney Faculty of Science Postgraduate Research Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement. Most recently he received a prestigious scholarship from the International Association of Wildland Fire – congratulations Billy!

 He will use these scholarship funds to facilitate further fieldwork in Tasmania later in 2015, where he will be running workshops in communities to explore and test the use of VGI mapping initiatives for engaging and empowering citizens in their bushfire preparation. He is currently preparing a manuscript on findings from the interviews with emergency management professionals for submission to a special issue journal on advances in geospatial emergency management.

Fiona Jennings - Community volunteering and disaster recovery; a study of community resilience in the 2013 Forcett Bushfire, Tasmania

Fiona successfully completed her confirmation of candidature in late June. This is a major milestone that marks a shift from probationary to full candidature in a PhD. As a part of this process, Fiona prepared a detailed project proposal outlining her research rationale, questions and methodology. She also applied for and received ethics approval for her project. As a result, Fiona is now able to begin her fieldwork. She will use a case study design, sourcing information from interviews, observer notes and documents. Fiona is also presenting a prologue to her research project at the 12th Biennial National Rural Remote Social Work Conference.  

Julie Molloy - Social capital, inclusive engagement and community resilience to disasters

Julie is undertaking her PhD part time and has recently completed the initial coursework components. Her next steps are to develop her research focus and methodology. Her project will adopt an international perspective to examine aspects of social capital, inclusive engagement and community resilience to disasters. 

New ABS data shows volunteering rates have declined in Australia

According to Pro Bono Australia, “New ABS data shows volunteering rates in Australia are declining for the first time in almost 20 years with 75 per cent of people surveyed saying they feel too rushed or pressed for time.”

Notably, the highest rates of volunteering were for young people aged 15-17 years (42 per cent), those aged 35-44 years (39 per cent) and older people aged 65-74 years (35 per cent). 

However, the ABS excludes digital participation from its definition of volunteering, leading CEO of Volunteering Tasmania, Adrienne Picone, to caution that "failing to include these types of figures may not give an accurate view of the ‘new age’ of volunteering, which is starting to look quite different to the past.”

Our project report on trends impacting emergency volunteering, ‘Emergency volunteering in Australia: transforming not declining’, considers implications of this ‘new age’ of volunteering for Australian emergency management.

Digital volunteering in the Hazelwood mine fire 

A case study of Victoria’s Virtual Operations Support Team (VOST) in the Hazelwood mine fire is now available on the Australian Emergency Management Knowledge Hub. 

Virtual operations support is a form of digital volunteering that aims to “make use of new communication technologies and social media tools so that a team of trusted agents can lend support via the internet to those on-site who may otherwise be overwhelmed by the volume of data generated during a disaster”. VOST Victoria monitored the fire and public health emergency aspects of the Hazelwood fire via Twitter, and created a record of the disaster through the eyes of this social media channel in order to assist other social media in emergency management (SMEM) operators. 

UN releases 2015 report on volunteering

The United Nation’s Volunteer Program has released its 2015 State of the World’s Volunteerism report which focuses on transforming governance, and volunteerism as a channel for civic engagement. 

The report identifies “a number of common themes, key strategies, challenges and opportunities for volunteerism that impact the three pillars of governance – voice and participation, accountability and responsiveness” (p.83).

A new definition of volunteering

Volunteering Australia has just announced a new definition of volunteering following extensive consultation:

‘Volunteering’ is time willingly given for the common good without financial gain.

The new definition is broader and more inclusive than previous versions. It better reflects the diverse ways that people are volunteering in contemporary Australia including, for example, through informal, corporate and cause-driven volunteering (e.g. activism).

This definition is certainly more inclusive of the types of non-traditional volunteering that we are examining in the Out of Uniform project. 

Upcoming events

Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC & AFAC Annual Conference, September 2015
We are presenting a paper on our research in the Research Forum of the AFAC/BNHCRC Annual Conference in Adelaide this year that is ambitiously titled “The future of non-traditional emergency volunteering: what will it look like and how can it work?”. We hope to see some of our end users there. Please let us know if you plan to attend the conference so we can use it as a chance to catch up. The Research Forum is on Tuesday 1 September and we will be presenting alongside the MAiD project in a session on volunteering at 11am (Stream 2).

WA Fire and Emergency Services Conference, September 2015
A representative of the Out of Uniform project will be participating in the WA Fire and Emergency Services Conference, 18-20 September 2015. See here for more information on the conference.

Project outputs

Whittaker J, Handmer J, and McLennan B. A review of informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: definition, opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2015.

Whittaker J, Handmer J, Mclennan BJ. Informal volunteerism in emergencies and disasters: a literature review. 2015, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC: Melbourne, Australia.

McLennan BJ, Whittaker J, Handmer J. Emergency volunteering in Australia: transforming not declining. 2015, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC: Australia.

Whittaker J, Handmer J, McLennan B. Building community resilience through informal emergency volunteering, in Proceedings of the Research Forum at the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and AFAC Conference 2014, M. Rumsewicz, Editor. 2015, Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre: Wellington, New Zealand.

Haworth B, Bruce E. A review of volunteered geographic information for disaster management. Geography Compass 2015; 9(5): 237-250. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12213

Haworth B, Bruce E, Middleton P. Emerging technologies for risk reduction: assessing the potential use of social media and VGI for increasing community engagement in bushfire preparation. Australian Journal of Emergency Management. 

Forthcoming and under review

McLennan BJ, Whittaker J, Handmer J. Australian disaster volunteering in the 21st Century: trends, implications and opportunities. Under review with Journal of Disaster Prevention and Management.

Haworth B, Bruce E, Middleton P. Emerging technologies for risk reduction: assessing the potential use of social media and VGI for increasing community engagement in bushfire preparation. Australian Journal of Emergency Management.

McLennan BJ, Whittaker J, Handmer J. Community-led bushfire preparedness in action: the case of Be Ready Warrandyte. Forthcoming, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC: Melbourne, Australia.