National Volunteer Week 2019

Making A World of Difference

Volunteering Australia defines volunteering as “time willingly given for the common good and without financial gain.”

Volunteering Facts - Did You Know?

• 6 million Australians volunteer.
• There are an estimated 1 billion volunteers worldwide. (1)
• Australian volunteers contribute an estimated $290 billion to the national economy annually, yielding a 450% return for every dollar invested. (2)
• In 2016, Australians collectively volunteered 932 million hours in their local communities. (3)
• The time given by volunteers worldwide is equivalent to 109 million full-time employees. (4)

Every year, Australia celebrates those 6 million volunteers when we celebrate National Volunteering Week.  2019 marks THIRTY YEARS of taking the time to acknowledge the effort and work, and often blood, sweat, and tears that our volunteers put into our communities, and this year's theme is "Making a World of Difference."

From the Volunteering Australia website:

Established in 1989, National Volunteer Week was the first collaborative attempt to promote volunteering nationally. It is the largest celebration of volunteers and volunteerism in Australia and provides an opportunity to highlight the role of volunteers in our community and to say thank you to the more than 6 million Australians who volunteer.

At IComm, we are blessed to have a lot of great people on our team that believe passionately in volunteering in their local communities.  We featured five of those team members in social media posts last week, during National Volunteer Week, and we wanted to recap them here, and share a bit more love for those 6 million Aussies that make such a world of difference.

Mick is a go-to at @icommaus when you're having an issue that needs some outside-the-box thinking... he loves camping & being outdoors, but, you should see him run a sausage sizzle - he's a machine! #NVW2019 #PeopleOfIComm #1stDoreen @ScoutsVictoria pic.twitter.com/V0z3s1L89O

— IComm Australia (@ICommAUS) May 22, 2019

Thank you so very much, not only to those on our IComm Team that volunteer, but to the 6 million Australians that volunteer across our nation, making our communities what they are: thriving hubs of life for all of us to enjoy and grow within.

• (1) UNVolunteers (2019), 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report The thread that binds Volunteerism and community resilience, https://www.unv.org/sites/default/files/2018%20The%20thread%20that%20binds%20final.pdf
• (2) Volunteering Australia (2019), VA 2019-20 Pre-Budget Submission, https://www.volunteeringaustralia.org/wp-content/files_mf/1548911493FINAL_VolunteeringAustralia201920PreBudgetSubmission.pdf
• (3) DFAT (2018), Report on the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, https://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/development-issues/2030-agenda/Documents/sdg-voluntary-national-review.pdf
• (4) UNVolunteers (2019), 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report The thread that binds Volunteerism and community resilience, https://www.unv.org/sites/default/files/2018%20The%20thread%20that%20binds%20final.pdf