Supporting Your Volunteers: A Resource Kit for Emergency Service Volunteer Leaders

Supporting a thriving and diverse volunteer workforce is essential to strengthening the resilience of Australian communities to natural hazards.

Supporting Your Volunteers: A Resource Kit for Emergency Service Volunteer Leaders is a new package of resources aimed at current or aspiring volunteer leaders. It's designed to help leaders learn more about how to better recruit volunteers, support new volunteers, and retain current and future volunteers through effective leadership.

The resource kit comprises three modules full of evidence-based, interactive and engaging videos, documents and activities that were developed in partnership with emergency service volunteers and their leaders:

• Module 1: Recruiting
• Module 2: Onboarding
• Module 3: Leading

The modules can be used as a full support package or users can choose the elements of each module most in need of improvement within their brigade, group or unit.

The modules are the result of five years of research conducted with volunteers. The resources within each module draw from research and examples given by volunteers that were interviewed and surveyed over the years. 

These were developed through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC’s Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project, Curtin University’s Future of Work Institute, the University of Western Australia and several emergency service agencies, primarily the Department of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia.

The resources are not intended to replace the existing information provided by emergency service agencies, but rather to support the existing strategies where there might be gaps or topics that can be improved with research-backed resources. All of the resources can be adapted or amended by volunteer leaders within emergency services to fit existing, internal portfolios or training units.

Module 1: Recruiting

Module 2: Onboarding

Module 3: Leading