As Illawarra community organisations struggle to find volunteers, Wollongong City Council has resolved to close the region's centre of excellence for volunteering.
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Volunteering Illawarra will close its doors on August 26 after councillors unanimously resolved to discontinue the service on June 27.
The service, which was initially primarily funded by the federal government in 1998, has received less funding from federal and state governments, leaving Council with a $134,000 bill in 2021.
"Since 2013, Council's own subsidy of the service went from about $40,000 per year to more than $100,000 per year," a Wollongong City Council spokesperson said.
According to a report prepared for councillors, changes to federal and state funding arrangements left Council with no choice.
"The changing policy and funding context in which the [Volunteering Illawarra] program is delivered mean that it is no longer viable for Council to subsidise or deliver this service," the report states.
"There does not appear to be an alternative to winding up this valuable service, while acknowledging the outcomes that it has delivered for Council and for the Wollongong community over many years and developing options for the continuation of critical elements of the VI service portfolio."
Ingrid Ferguson, volunteer and engagement officer, at Healthy Cities Illawarra said it was a shame that a service such as Volunteering Illawarra was closing down as community organisations search for volunteers to fill needed positions.
"It's hard that any resources in that area have been cut, it will always have an impact. Anything being cut or taken away is a loss," she said.
With volunteer numbers fluctuating as COVID waves sweep through the community and heavy rains delay programs, Ms Ferguson said as people have more commitments, volunteering is the activity that falls off the list.
"People want to volunteer, but they're full at the moment," she said. "It feels like people have got a lot of competing things going on, and that there is an overwhelming amount of things ramping up at the same time after things have been shut."
The report to Wollongong also notes that rather than having an in-person resource centre, connecting volunteers to community organisations, patterns of volunteering had shifted online.
"Commonwealth policy directions indicate that the future of volunteering will be designed around online volunteer recruitment, referral, training and support," the Council report states.
A council spokesperson explained the growth of large community organisations with the resources to recruit and support volunteers meant that the role for local agencies such as Volunteering Illawarra had diminished.
"The revised funding opportunities from the Federal and State governments now focus on short-term, specific projects aimed at targeted groups such as people living with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, newly-arrived migrants and refugees," the council spokesperson said.
What impact this would have on local organisations that run community programs on an ongoing basis throughout the year is unclear.
Ms Ferguson said what is apparent, is the work that Healthy Cities and other community organisations do would not be possible without volunteers.
"Volunteers are the reflection of the community," she said. "We wouldn't be able to run the programs the way we do [without volunteers]."
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