Nic Street,Minister for Community Services and Development
National Volunteer Week 2022 starts today and is an important opportunity to recognise the huge contribution volunteers make to our Tasmanian community, and to say thank you to them.
The theme for Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering is Better Together.
Volunteering brings people together; it builds communities and creates a better society for everyone.
Being a volunteer helps unite us regardless of our background or our age, and the Tasmanian Liberal Government provides strong support through Volunteering Tasmania to encourage a new generation of life-long Tasmanian volunteers.
We want to highlight the importance and benefits of volunteering to young Tasmanians, which is why we have committed to building a Youth Volunteer Army in partnership with Volunteering Tasmania, working through community groups and schools.
This is in addition to our current initiatives to fund Volunteering Tasmania to help build volunteering numbers, to help organisations to adapt and keep volunteers safe, and to effectively recruit, support and manage a more flexible workforce.
Volunteering Tasmania estimates that in 2021, Tasmanians relied on 170,000 formal volunteers and the value of their volunteering is nearly $3 billion, a massive contribution without which our Tasmanian community simply could not function.
In particular this year, I want to say thank you to Volunteering Tasmania and to the EV-CREW who have supported the rapid recruitment and deployment of so many volunteers during the hugely challenging COVID-19 pandemic in Tasmania.
Wave Your Appreciation for Volunteers
The Wave Your Appreciation campaign is back for this year’s National Volunteer Week 16-22 May 2022.
We are encouraging Tasmanians to use social media to ‘put your hand up’ and thank the volunteers in your life and community that join the millions around Australia.
You can wave your appreciation for volunteers by drawing a smiley face on your hand and uploading your photo to social media using the hashtags #WaveForVolunteers and #NVW2022.
Volunteering Australia will be featuring contributors’ waves on their social platforms throughout National Volunteer Week. See the campaign video here
I’ve posted my efforts here and encourage everyone to put something up too, in support of our volunteers.
