Young guns the future of volunteering

• New research has found than a third of Australians currently volunteer in some capacity (35%) and one in four Australians (38%) are keen to volunteer even though they don’t currently,
• The vast majority of those willing to volunteer in the future are Gen Z (48%) and Millennials (42%),
• Almost a third of fulltime workers would consider taking up volunteering if employers offered volunteer leave.

A national independent survey* commissioned by St John as part of National Volunteer Week celebrations has revealed young Australians are the most keen to put their hand up to serve their community in the future.

The survey of more than 1000 Australians found:

• More than one-third of Australians currently volunteer in some capacity (35%),
• One in four Australians (38%) are keen to volunteer even though they don’t currently,
• The vast majority of those willing to volunteer in the future were born after 1980, including Gen Z (48%) and Millennials (42%).

It also revealed almost a third of fulltime workers would consider taking up volunteering if employers offered volunteer leave since it helps free up people from their commitments, which is considered the biggest barrier to volunteering.

Most commonly, volunteers say the part they value the most about volunteering is giving back to the community (65%), followed by knowing that not-for-profit organisations make a real difference in the world (48%).

St John WA Head of Country Ambulance Justin Fonte said volunteers were the backbone of the WA particularly in the regions where they deliver critical life-saving emergency response.

“We have more than 140 volunteer sub centres and sub branches across regional WA, which means our state has more response locations per head capita than any other jurisdiction on mainland Australia,” Mr Fonte said.

St John WA have so many different roles available with a time commitment to suit even the most time-poor of people, both in metropolitan and regional WA. Volunteers receive training and support and have options across administration, emergency response and delivering first aid training.

Check out the story of 2021 St John Volunteer of the Year Wendy Price here.

This National Volunteer Week, be like Wendy and join St John WA’s friendly community of volunteers https://stjohnwa.com.au/changelives/volunteer.