Connect with your community through volunteering during National Volunteer Week.

** National Volunteer Week networking event for organisers: Invercargill Library meeting room, 24th June, 1.30 - 2.30pm**

National Volunteer Week honours the collective energies and mana of all volunteers in Aotearoa.

Running from June 20-26th this year's theme is ‘Recognise, Connect, Reimagine’.

More than 1million people across Aotearoa say they volunteer for an organisation contributing $4billion to the economy.

Volunteering is great for volunteers and their community. Communities with high numbers of volunteers are safer, stronger and more connected. Volunteers make new connections and friends, share and learn skills, gain a sense of purpose and satisfaction and hopefully really enjoy their involvement in an organisation they are passionate about.

Whether volunteers are keen to help for an hour or a day, as a one off commitment or continuing into the future, there are a fabulous range of roles to get involved in and share time and energy.

Volunteer South encourages organisation that involve volunteers to show thanks to their volunteering during NVW and highlight the impact they are making in their community. Whether volunteering for an event, sports, music, conversation, working with kids or caring for others, volunteers share their time, skills and energy and make our communities stronger.

Volunteer South - Invercargill

 Volunteer South - Invercargill promotes, strengthens and supports volunteering creating stronger more connected communities. We strive to ensure volunteering is a positive and rewarding experience for all involved and offer support, advice and training to organisations that involve volunteers. 

We encourage individuals to take an active role in their communities and provide a link between prospective volunteers that are willing to share their skills and energy, and organisations that involve volunteers.

Working in proud partnership with Invercargill CAB Volunteer South - Invercargill is part of the wider Volunteer South family, 2021 sees the Dunedin office celebrating 35 years and Central Lakes 10 years of supporting volunteering in their communities.

With a strong focus on relationships, we work hard to get to know our member organisations and their needs, and network with community based organisations to ensure we are aware of the bigger picture and avoid duplication of services.

Nationally we are a member of Volunteering New Zealand and the Volunteer Centre Network Aotearoa.

Like volunteers - we are stronger when working together.

Organisations are invited to register with Volunteer South - Invercargill to promote their roles which are then listed on their website and also on the Southland App's new volunteer page. 

For those preferring a more personal touch our dedicated Connections Coordinator Raewyn Clarke, is available to meet with volunteers to help them identify rewarding roles to get involved in that match their skills, motivations and interests. Raewyn is based at the CAB each Tuesday and Thursday but it's best to make an appointment in case she's out in the community.

Volunteer South has a comprehensive list of organisation and volunteer roles on it’s website (www.volunteersouth.org.nz) where organisations can list their roles and volunteers can browse by area and category and sign up to express their interest in the role.

One of our core beliefs is that everyone has something to offer as a volunteer, regardless of their background, ethnicity, age, gender, ability, experience or circumstance and we work hard with organisations to encourage them to be accepting of volunteer from a range of backgrounds and capabilities.

We strive to break down the barriers to volunteering and regularly support individuals into volunteering who face additional barriers such as living with a disability, criminal record or mental health issue. We challenge discrimination and celebration and encourage diversity and inclusion.

Photo: Nadine Cagney

Organisation Support

Volunteer South offers support to organisations using volunteers and helps with those setting up a volunteer programme or those already up and running and just needing a health check. With a focus on best practice in volunteering we strive to ensure all organisations give volunteers the best possible experience and ensure their actions are transformative and they understand the full impact of their actions. We do this through group workshops and face to face meetings.

We offer training and workshops relating directly to volunteering and wider areas that support the organisations we work with and enable them to increase their capacity. Upcoming training is in partnership with Sport Otago and consists of three online workshops from the team at EXULT https://www.exult.co.nz/ (fundraising, sponsorship and raising your profile)

Following their successful Volunteer Engagement workshop last month the team, who are based at the CAB on Don Street are hosting their first networking event during National Volunteer Week.

Taking place in the library’s meeting room in Invercargill on Thursday 24th June, 2021 at 1.30 until 2.30pm, this will be time anyone involved in recruiting and supporting volunteers in the area to come together, share successes, challenges and ideas and decide as a group the format and topics for meetings going forward.