Each year, millions of Australians donate their time to help others, without expectation of a personal financial benefit. Through their efforts, the impact created by Australian volunteers is enormous. After all, Australian volunteers don’t only meet needs that might otherwise go unfulfilled in their communities through their good works and services. An update to a 2011 University of Adelaide study found that Australia’s volunteers contribute more than the entire mining industry to our economy, with a true estimated impact of around $290 billion AUD each year!

Now, for the first time since records on volunteer rates began to be collected in 1995, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that the rate of volunteering in Australia has decreased over 5%, from 36% to 31%. At a time of growing needs and budget cuts, Australia needs its volunteers more than ever!

Several efforts are currently underway to help ensure that Australia continues to create an environment that promotes and develops a dynamic and growing network of volunteers.  One such effort seeks to increase the number of school age volunteers.

On behalf of Volunteering Australia, the Volunteering ACT has produced several resources to help teachers foster a culture of giving within their students enrolled in Foundation-Year 10 classrooms.  These resources include lesson plans, units of work and a wide range of information to help teachers be able to infuse their daily lessons and activities with volunteer principles and practices.

Increasing the number of school aged volunteers isn’t just about preserving the economic benefit that volunteering provides the economy. While the act of volunteering has a huge economic and social influence on the nation, the simple, altruistic act of helping others conveys several benefits to the individual volunteers, regardless of their age. These benefits include the development of feelings of greater empathy, compassion and camaraderie as well as increased self-esteem among volunteers. Volunteers also often have opportunities to acquire new experiences and unique skills and knowledge as part of their service to others.

By bringing information about what it means to volunteer, as well as opportunities to actually volunteer, into the classroom, it is hoped that Australia’s children will “catch” the “volunteer bug” early. Hopefully, this will help to instil in them the desire and habit of helping others that will follow them throughout their lives as they work together to create a more caring and fair society.

To learn more about how to get started helping your students foster a culture of giving, teachers and other interested parties can access these resources through Volunteering Australia.