Stories of Impact

Strengthening Red Cross Volunteer Workforce

Growing the capability and capacity of the Emergency Services program to  identify, recruit, skill, engage and retain a robust and diverse workforce of volunteers and volunteer trainers.

With disasters becoming more frequent and intense, Red Cross Emergency Services teams are being called upon more than ever before. In FY22, we were activated for 42 events, with 1,700 volunteers and staff assisting over 300,000people before, during and after these events, from bushfires, floods and heatwaves to collective trauma events and COVID-19.

Our volunteers play a critical role at all stages of the emergency management cycle - from community resilience and preparedness to response and long-term recovery. Despite the increasing demand for well-trained, committed volunteers, their numbers have been steadily declining. Investment is urgently needed to rebuild and sustain a strong volunteer workforce to meet the challenge of supporting local communities.

Red Cross must grow our volunteer workforce in high-risk regions, and build technical and humanitarian capabilities, to target preparedness and resilience building activities where needed most, and provide critical on-the-ground support - quickly and at scale - when disasters strike. To do this, we require adequate capability and capacity across the country, to deliver our training programs locally to new and existing volunteers. This grant enables us to train 20 volunteer trainers to deliver these trainings and grow our workforce to help those in need.

This program provides:

1. Growth and upskilling of volunteer trainers. By training 20 volunteers to gain the 'Train-the-Trainer' qualification, this provides them with the skills and confidence to facilitate training sessions for other volunteers. Having volunteer trainers across the country means we can recruit and train more volunteers.

2. Training volunteers: Skilled trainers deliver trainings to ensure our Emergency Services teams have the skills and knowledge required to perform in their roles. Volunteers complete a series of learning modules including Psychological First Aid, self-care and wellbeing, disaster recovery, and disaster response. Some volunteers will be trained to work in or manage evacuation centres.

3. Deploying volunteers: Skilled volunteers join a volunteer pool ready to be deployed across a range of 'hands-on' emergency services experiences in their local community, and across Australia.

Examples include:

Facilitating preparedness activities for individuals and communities; coordinating our disaster response as part of an Incident Management Team; setting up evacuation centres to provide essential supplies, psychological first aid, and reunification services; and being involved in long-term resilience and recovery activities.

For further information about the Australian Red Cross go to https://www.redcross.org.au/

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