Volunteer Managers Breakfast 2014 with Emma Austin - Ability Links - Volunteer Managers from around Eastern Sydney participated in a meeting in October with a workshop held by Emma Austin on assisting people living with a disability into volunteering.

1. emma.austin@vinnies.org.au

2. Linkers work with people with disability, their
families and carers to help them plan for their
future, build on their strengths and skills, and
develop networks in their own communities so they
can do what they want with their lives - outside of
the traditional disability service system.
Linkers also work with local communities to help
them become more welcoming and inclusive of
people with disability.

3. Why do we include volunteers? What
work do they do?
• Home visiting (social support)
• Driving the person to the bank, a doctor's
appointment or visiting friends etc.
• Administration support in the HACC agencies
• Respite care (giving carers a break)
• Shopping assistance
• Assisting with recreational activities
• Food/meals distribution, eg. Meals on Wheels
• Tutors and teachers

4. Your ideas…..

5. - We learned that community transport have
adapted with the needs of their volunteer
- We discussed the fact that the people receiving
HACC funded services are vulnerable and so this
impacts greatly the decision to include a volunteer
with unknown support needs
- Can we ask about the needs of the volunteer? Yes!
This will empower all involved
- We considered the necessity for detailed
volunteer adverts and the benefits of simplifying
them to attract volunteers
What can you remember…..?

6. What’s working? What’s Not Working?
• Volunteers add value to services especially HACC
funded as we can increase service delivery.
• New retiree’s are great volunteers in HACC
services
• People with a disability are fabulous volunteers
at aged care centre
• Identifying gifts and converting service users to
volunteers is happening and is very successful
• We employ strategies to support volunteers and
services to get started such as trial days
• We always try and give volunteers a go
Your reflections….
• Volunteers with support needs can be unreliable
• We need some skills to successfully fulfil the roles
• We invest in giving people a go but they
sometimes prove unable to do the role
Your reflections….

7. One organisation had been working
with a group of their volunteers who
were disabled to deliver disability
awareness training to other
volunteers and staff.
One organisation described its experience of involving two
volunteers
with severe learning disabilities:
We do have to be careful and have boundaries. For example,
volunteers with learning difficulties – we have two people
who could not volunteer
without support. We did get other volunteers to support
them at first, but now we have had to ask them not to come
until we can find additional
support. But instead they are sitting on the disability
steering group and they may also come to do a newsletter –
so we are finding alternatives
(member of staff).
They went on to say:
We are now trying to get volunteer advocates to give that
support. There is always a way around it – it is never a
closed door (member of staff).
I find out what a volunteer wants to do
and then I find a placement to suit
them – there are so many things going
on in [the organisation] that I can
normally find them something
(member of staff).
I discuss what is available and then
they say what they want to do. It is
their choice and they know what they
are capable of. It is about capabilities
not disabilities (member of staff).
Volunteers in one organisation told us
how they appreciated being able to try
out different activities for a couple of
sessions before committing
themselves. As one respondent said:
Nobody falls out with you, for example
if you don’t want to do something. You
can have a see what it is like for a
couple of days (volunteer, disabled).
One organisation we studied decided to offer incentives, such as inviting its volunteers to take part in
outdoor activities at reduced cost. This was seen not only as a way of valuing existing volunteers but
also as a way of making volunteering more attractive to new volunteers.

8. Ask potential volunteers
about their support
needs to increase the
potential of you being
able to work together
Keep an open mind about
what volunteers who have
disabilities can offer
When looking for volunteers let
the advertisement reflect the
simplicity of what you are looking
for and what the volunteer will
be able to get from the role