Page 2092 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 15 May 2013
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Turning now to the contribution that volunteers make to sport and recreation services in Canberra, as Ms Porter has informed the chamber, the 2013 ACT volunteer of the year announced earlier today is Peter Russell, whose volunteering over 10 years with the YMCA Canberra Sailing Club has meant that he has supported hundreds of people with a disability to enjoy sailing.
Latest reports tell us that every year about 27,000 Canberrans volunteer in a sport and recreation organisation in a “non-playing” role. To put this in some context, this equates to three million hours of volunteer labour, which would be worth more than $40 million annually to our economy. On top of this, the social benefits that volunteers contribute to the local sport and recreation sector and the Canberra community are hard to quantify but just as valuable. Volunteers take on a myriad of roles, including coaching, officiating, fundraising, canteen operations and committee positions. Without these contributions, opportunities for participants from the grassroots to the elite level simply would not be possible.
It is hard to underestimate the impact that volunteers have on people’s health and wellbeing. By helping people to take part in physical activity, sport and recreation, volunteers promote the importance of staying fit, which obviously contributes to the overall health of our population.
Sport and recreation services within the ACT government formally recognise volunteers through the thanks awards program that was introduced in 2001. Since its inception more than 230 volunteers from over 50 local sport and recreation organisations have been recognised through the thanks awards. At last year’s awards volunteers gave a range of intangible reasons for their involvement. The good feeling from seeing kids smile after a football match, raising funds for charity after months of planning, the finalisation of a competition draw, the heartfelt thanks that they receive from mums and dads are examples of what makes the job of a volunteer so satisfying.
However, in recent years the number of volunteers involved has declined. Today’s busy lifestyles often make finding time to volunteer difficult. Knowing this, and because volunteers are the lifeblood of the industry, it is vital that sport and recreation organisations develop new strategies to encourage new volunteers and to manage and work effectively with their existing volunteers. So it is important that we take opportunities like today to recognise our wonderful volunteers, to seek to retain their services and to attract new volunteers to our organisations. That is why active 2020, the strategic plan for sport and active recreation in the ACT, and the national sports volunteer strategy from the Australian Sports Commission are seeking a more structured approach to volunteer planning and support for clubs around recruitment, definition of roles and responsibilities, retention, costs of volunteering and, as I mentioned earlier, corporate volunteering.
Volunteers support almost every part of the sporting pathway, so they are critical to the ongoing success of sport and recreation in Canberra and nationally. In 2009 The future of sport in Australia report—perhaps more commonly known as the Crawford report—noted the critical role of volunteers to Australian sport and recommended that the national government develop and fund a national volunteer program for sporting
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