Barriers to Volunteering for Marginalised Groups
Our summary
Volunteering and volunteer-involving organisations (VIOs) are in challenging times. Many VIOs are experiencing a shortage of volunteers, who are essential to delivering many services and underpin the social fabric of the Australian way of life.
This may only get more difficult with challenging economic circumstances putting increasing demands upon the VIOs at a time when there are also changing expectations around volunteering. On top of this is a string of large sport events in Australian ‘Green and Gold Decade’ that will need many thousands of volunteers, often drawn from the existing volunteer pool.
The University of Canberra and AMAN Consulting Pty Ltd were commissioned by Volunteering WA (on behalf of Volunteer Management Activity) to explore the barriers to volunteering for the three groups who are often underrepresented, and maybe marginalised, as providers of services in the volunteering community:
- First Nations Peoples,
- Newly arrived migrants,
- People with disability.
Downloads and links
To explore the current academic knowledge in this space and to inform potential recommendations, the report undertook a systematic literature review (SLR) and then semi-structured interviews with a small sample of key stakeholders across and within the three target groups.
The interview data supported the findings of the literature review and provided more current insight into the problem. It was clear that there was an interest and a willingness to be more inclusive that would be beneficial both for meeting staffing needs, but also for the customers of the VIO’s services. VIO efforts to address and improve the volunteering rates and volunteering experiences of the three marginalised groups should incorporate short-, medium- and long-term actions. These need to be planned, resourced, and evaluated for impact and ongoing organisational alignment.