Kristine Wendtman

How people volunteer to keep their community safe from natural hazards is changing. As our work and life commitments change, many people do not have the time to dedicate to traditional ways of volunteering with an emergency service, undergo the required training and develop the ability to respond to potentially dangerous situations. But they still want to help, and they still want to volunteer.

This project investigated current and emerging issues around volunteering and volunteers responding to disaster events, and the different factors that can influence people’s participation in non-traditional emergency volunteering.

This three-year project worked with those in the emergency management sector engaged in diversity and inclusion practice to develop an evidence-based framework capable of supporting more effective management and measurement of diversity and inclusion. This project has experienced a high level of uptake and use during its three-year term and training in the use of the framework is underway. This has been aided by the sector’s focus on progressing the diversity and inclusion agenda, and the work of peak agencies and end-user organisations to develop programs and leadership. It has also contributed to the repositioning of the diversity and inclusion agenda as a risk-based business imperative, and has developed and provided materials to support the integration of diversity and inclusion into resilience, risk and workforce planning frameworks.

This project had two parts: Emergency volunteering 2030, led by Dr Blythe McLennan, and Changing management practice, led by Dr Patrick Dunlop.The goal of this researcg was to improve the long-term sustainability of the volunteer workforce, and better engage the potential of volunteering to build disaster resilience in Australian communities.