Western News: September 10, 2020
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WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Thursday <strong>September</strong> <strong>10</strong> <strong>2020</strong> 3<br />
<strong>News</strong><br />
Retaining volunteers difficult<br />
• By Bea Gooding<br />
ORGANISATIONS, charities<br />
and community groups are<br />
concerned about the future of<br />
volunteering in Christchurch<br />
following Covid-19.<br />
Some reported a surge of<br />
volunteers post-lockdown as a<br />
way to support their community<br />
during trying times, but<br />
retaining them was a different<br />
story.<br />
In an annual report by Volunteering<br />
New Zealand which<br />
examines the voluntary sector,<br />
36.6 per cent of organisations<br />
reported a lack of volunteers as<br />
their single biggest challenge.<br />
Delta Community Support<br />
Trust general manager Ian<br />
Burn said the organisation had<br />
not experienced a significant<br />
decrease in its volunteer<br />
workforce, however, they were<br />
not immune to the effects of<br />
Covid-19.<br />
Said Burn: “As Covid-19<br />
levels go up and down, more<br />
older volunteers have been<br />
cautious.<br />
“We have had some volunteers<br />
step out of the scene<br />
because of it, with concerns<br />
about themselves or people<br />
in their households who are<br />
vulnerable.”<br />
During the lockdown, the<br />
organisation was kept busy,<br />
DECLINE: Alison Marshall and Glenda Martin, of<br />
Volunteering Canterbury, say a desire for episodic work<br />
effects volunteer rates in the region.<br />
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN <br />
with its food bank service<br />
experiencing a 50 per cent<br />
increase in demand, highlighting<br />
the need to have more<br />
hands on deck.<br />
“We always need more<br />
volunteers; we don’t have<br />
enough,” said Burn.<br />
In the Volunteering NZ<br />
report, involving 3000 people<br />
in the voluntary sector across<br />
the country, 35.8 per cent of<br />
respondents noted an ageing<br />
volunteer workforce as a<br />
concern, and a lack of younger<br />
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volunteers.<br />
During the pandemic, many<br />
vulnerable volunteers, young<br />
and old, were forced to stop<br />
volunteering in order to protect<br />
their health, which further<br />
decreased workforces.<br />
Volunteering Canterbury<br />
strategy and finance manager<br />
Alison Marshall said many<br />
organisations have had to “rethink”<br />
the way they ran their<br />
volunteer programmes since<br />
the lockdown.<br />
“Lockdown, and then the<br />
See website for details<br />
impact of different levels, has<br />
meant that they have had to,<br />
for example, factor in social<br />
distancing, taking extra precautions<br />
where their regular<br />
volunteer team includes older<br />
adults or those who may be<br />
vulnerable,” she said.<br />
“Re-thinking and reorganising<br />
the way you do<br />
things is always challenging,<br />
especially for organisations<br />
that are already often stretched<br />
and working around tight time<br />
frames.”<br />
A “spike of interest” in<br />
people wanting to volunteer<br />
in Canterbury since the<br />
lockdown was put down to the<br />
increased sense of community<br />
or a change in circumstances,<br />
said Marshall.<br />
But feelings of uncertainty<br />
about the future – as it was<br />
highlighted post-earthquakes<br />
and now, Covid-19 – reflected<br />
people’s readiness to make<br />
long-term commitments, hindering<br />
recruitment rates.<br />
“Many prospective volunteers<br />
are seeking one-off,<br />
shorter-term or episodic volunteering<br />
opportunities,” said<br />
Marshall.<br />
“This can be a challenge as<br />
it takes time and resources to<br />
recruit, orientate and train<br />
volunteers; something which is<br />
limited for many.”<br />
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