Volunteers celebrated during National Volunteer Week

National Volunteer Week is the largest celebration of volunteering in Australia. Recognising that every volunteer makes an important contribution to the broader community, this year’s theme was ‘Volunteers – Every One Counts’.

DPCD’s work to promote National Volunteer Week included a gathering of volunteering organisations at the Red Cross Australia headquarters in North Melbourne, a visit to Royal Children's Hospital and a special eight-page supplement in The Weekly Times (PDF 1.5 MB) or (Word 123 KB) focusing on the great work of volunteers across Victoria.

The lift-out profiled the personal stories of Victorian volunteers in diverse fields; from flood recovery, fire fighting and lifesaving to youth advocacy, hands-on environment work, sport and recreation and health.

It also promoted Victoria's Volunteering Portal that has more than 3,500 diverse volunteering opportunities to offer – from fire fighting, floods recovery and lifesaving, to pre-school care, adult education, sport and recreation, health, arts, heritage, tourism and local government.

Over the past 12 months, there were 242,500 visits to the portal with 510,000 searches for volunteer opportunities from more than 500 organisations.