Yarra Ranges Council is celebrating the vital work of its community members who donate their time as volunteers, as part of National Volunteer Week (NVW), which runs from 16-22 May.
This year’s NVW theme is ‘Better Together’, shining a light on how the act of volunteering brings people together, strengthens the community and creates a better society for everyone.
Around one in four Yarra Ranges residents are volunteers, giving their time to help make their communities a thriving, safe and enjoyable place to live.
Yarra Ranges Mayor, Cr Jim Child, thanked the countless number of local volunteers for their passion and continued hard work.
“We’re so lucky to have such passionate and inspiring community members who donate their valuable time and effort into making their communities better,” said Cr Child.
“Whether it’s our local environmental groups, sporting clubs or other local community services, I want to thank each and every volunteer for helping make the Yarra Ranges such a wonderful place to live.
“At Council in particular we have a number of volunteers who assist us in rolling out services such as Meals on Wheels, our L2P program, environmental programs, Bookaburra and social support.
“The volume of work they do is astounding, for example over the last year alone our Meals on Wheels volunteers have delivered more than 44,000 meals and travelled around 133,000km to support the health and wellbeing of our older residents.”
“We’ve also had 10 local learner drivers earn their P plates thanks to the help of our volunteer L2P mentors.
“We’re always on the lookout for more people to assist us in these programs and others, so if you have the time and would like to help give back to your community, please reach out to us and we can point you in the right direction.
Yarra Ranges Council is seeking more volunteers to assist with the rollout of many of its programs, which you can find out more on at www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au/Volunteer.
