I am so happy to talk again in depth with my friend and colleague in Australia, Tracey O'Neill, CVA, on everything about the state of volunteering Down Under!
Tracey is a among a handful of CVAs in Australia, and she is a champion of promoting professional development in her pro bono work with Engage Journal, The Council for Certification in Volunteer Administration, and the new Australian National Strategy for Volunteering.
A few of the many highlights from our conversation:
- Getting the CVA established in Australia and updating the content for local practices and policies.
- Development of the new Australian National Strategy for Volunteering: [ Ссылка ]
- The ongoing efforts to expand accessibility of volunteering, in Oz and around the world.
- The cultural shift for funding volunteer engagement/services infrastructure locally and nationally.
- The history of silo'd grand volunteer effort "rollouts" with no research; examples in the UK and California among many, and how the new National Strategy bucked that trend with extensive studies and surveys.
- Reports from the recent Canberra National Conference on Volunteering.
- The humbling and difficult journey to true inclusion, access, and diversity as the majority of #LeadersOfVolunteers in Australia are white women.
- Building community trust and choice; taking lead from those getting services, redistributing power in relationships with intentional, long-term planning and collaboration.
- Starting the paradigm shift towards a shared sense of community responsibility vs. historical western individualism.
And lots of name drops for other wonderful and inspiring colleagues around the world including but not limited to; Breaunna Dorelus, Erin Spink, Faiza Venzant(CVA), Rob Jackson, Liza Dyer (CVA) and Martin J Cowling.
www.cvacert.org
engagejournal.org
