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This report presents views on the future of emergency volunteering from local government and local government association managers across Australia that have recent experience with this volunteering.

In this report, emergency volunteering means all types of volunteering that supports communities before, during and after a disaster or emergency, regardless of its particular organisational affiliation, or lack thereof. It includes formal volunteers affiliated with volunteer-based emergency management organisations (EMOs) as well as the diverse and growing types of formal and informal volunteering that supports communities before, during and after a disaster but is not affiliated with an EMO.

The landscape of emergency volunteering is characterised by far-reaching change, converging challenges and emerging new opportunities. A key concern today is how the changing landscape is putting pressure on the long-term sustainability of Australia’s formal emergency management volunteer capacity. However, the changing landscape also opens doors onto new and innovative ways for organisations to enable and enhance the value of volunteering for communities.

Local government managers clearly see a need for change in the emergency management (EM) sector with respect to volunteering and volunteer management, and the councils represented in these interviews are trialling and developing new management approaches in response. 

These interviews flag a looming need to examine how resourcing and funding options and restrictions may impact on the ability of the EM sector to adapt to the changing landscape of volunteering.

Many of the things that local government managers see as necessary to move the sector towards a preferred future for emergency volunteering are beyond the control of a single organisation to deliver. Certainly, many are beyond the reach of an individual council. They will require collaborative, and boundary-spanning approaches involving organisations within and beyond the EM sector. 

Future strategic planning for volunteering in the EM sector will benefit from strong representation from local government stakeholders in order to build an effective, enabling environment for local level volunteering and volunteer coordination into the future.

This report is one of a series of Environmental Scan reports being prepared through the Emergency volunteering 2030: Adapting the sector project to capture diverse views of the current and emerging landscape of emergency volunteering. The reports will be used to develop alternative future scenarios for emergency volunteering to inform today’s decision-making