The 'T' Word in Volunteer Management: A Creative Approach to Getting Volunteers into Training

South Australia boasts the highest volunteering rate in Australia, celebrates a strong level of government support for volunteers and even has volunteer involvement featured in the state’s ‘strategic plan’. The northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia’s capital city, has often been viewed as a hot bed for volunteerism, and so there were few surprises when a strong volunteer management sub-committee was formed as part of a broader initiative, called the Northern Collaborative Project (NCP).

A key problem tackled by this working party was the question of how to encourage more volunteers to undertake the training required of them by their organisations. The solution was that the group developed an annual training conference for their volunteers called ‘Volunteer Fest’.

Now gearing up for the third event, this article shares the experiences of the volunteer leaders who, through this forum, have revolutionized volunteer training in their local area.