Fewer Queenslanders are volunteering year-on-year, however the spike in numbers the 2032 Brisbane Games are anticipated to convey won’t be the saving grace it has been touted as, a governmental inquiry has discovered.
The inquiry into volunteering in Queensland, launched on Thursday, discovered the variety of volunteers fell by about 200,000 folks between 2020 and 2023, with these remaining “more and more being anticipated to present extra”.
“Those who stay are more and more burdened by rising expectations, monetary prices, and regulatory hurdles,” the report learn.
Essential service suppliers, together with Meals on Wheels Queensland and Neighbourhood Centres Queensland mentioned they have been involved they wouldn’t have the required numbers to perform.Credit: Getty Images
To attract new long-term volunteers, the state is hoping to leverage the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, however the report has cautioned the Games will convey contemporary points, as volunteer numbers weren’t a “zero-sum sport”.
“While the Games can galvanise a brand new period of volunteering, [it] may be accompanied by the potential for a brief drain on present neighborhood volunteer packages and a dissipation of curiosity after the Games have completed,” the report committee famous.
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“An event-specific surge doesn’t essentially compensate for the lack of a skilled, dedicated, and long-standing volunteer base from important companies.”
Those important service suppliers, together with Meals on Wheels Queensland and Neighbourhood Centres Queensland mentioned they have been involved they wouldn’t have the required numbers to perform.
The report additionally warned volunteering might lower after the 2032 Games, pointing to the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, after which elevated volunteer participation didn’t translate throughout organisation varieties.
