By Mikayla van Loon
Volunteering numbers have been dropping steadily over the last 20 years but the effects are being felt more so now than ever before, something that is being seen at places like Anglicare’s Treasure Chest Op Shop in Lilydale.
Op shop coordinator of 18 years, Lesley Conway said she has never known a period where there have been so few volunteer enquiries and Covid-19 saw many of the existing volunteers drop off.
Usually having a pool of at least 30 volunteers, Ms Conway said after the pandemic that number has reduced to about 20 both in the shop and the warehouse.
“At the moment, we often have to put the sign out saying we can’t take any donations because we’ve barely got enough people to look after the customers in the shop, so we can’t sort as well,” she said.
Knowing how much Covid-19 changed everyone’s lives, Ms Conway said she can understand that for many volunteers the health risks might have altered their ability to volunteer or it became a natural progression to retire from volunteering.
“I think there’s a bit of reticence from shoppers as well that people are still not comfortable about in person shopping to a degree so that probably translates to volunteering and people not knowing what the commitment might be and what it actually means.”
Volunteering Victoria CEO Scott Miller said the decline seen in that 20 year period has really been accelerated by the pandemic to the point where “it’s almost in freefall.”
“There’s a dramatic shortage of volunteers returning to their organisations and that’s because they’ve changed habits, changed their social schedule,” he said.
“In fact, a study that came out last week found that about 62 per cent of those volunteers that were furloughed or suspended, still have not come back to volunteering.”
Not only has the pandemic changed people’s values perhaps around spending more time with family and friends but Mr Miller said societal challenges have meant volunteering falls to the wayside.
“We’re also more individualistic, we’re increasingly working longer hours, we’ve got more transport concerns getting to and from work, family commitments, we’re trying to compress more into our lives, so it’s quite easy to let that volunteering connection dwindle.”
Mr Miller said however, people are “just changing the way they’re giving” by doing informal volunteering, a trend that peaked during the pandemic and created “a renaissance of that community interest and neighbourhood level of care and concern.”
But this lack of organisational volunteering is putting pressure on those who are picking up the slack.
“Our existing volunteers are feeling the pressure, they want the shop to remain open so a lot of them are doing extra days,” Ms Conway said.
Lead volunteer Heather said she remembers only once closing the store in her 24 years of being with the op shop because of the heat, so a lesser number of volunteers won’t be a reason to close.
Ms Conway said for the safety of the volunteers and for the benefit of the customer, the shop requires at least two volunteers a day but that is the bare minimum.
Ideally Ms Conway would like to see another five or six volunteers come onboard even one day a week to help relieve current staff.
“We always recognise that volunteers have their own life and all we ask is that people turn up when they say they’re going to turn up and do what we need them to do in the time they’re here and hopefully develop relationships in that time,” she said.
The friendships and camaraderie with both the other volunteers and the customers is something Ms Conway said she believes has been the main reason so many of the current volunteers have been with the op shop for many years.
Mr Miller said research has shown that those who don’t volunteer or have stopped volunteering experience a lesser quality of life.
“Volunteering not only is important for community wellbeing but it’s also important for one’s own individual wellbeing,” he said.
“So being able to find that time to be able to commit to a generosity and receiving the ‘helpers high’ that comes with supporting in a voluntary capacity is transformational for people’s health and their sense of agency and purpose in one’s life.”
People interested in volunteering at the Treasure Chest Op-Shop can contact Lesley Conway on 0400 179 786 or email Lesley.Conway@anglicarevic.org.au, or leave a message with the Anglicare office in Lilydale.
The Anglicare Victoria Treasure Chest Op-Shop is located at 24B John Street Lilydale and is open from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 1pm on Saturdays.
