Volunteering defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is "unpaid help willingly undertaken in the form of time, service or skills, to an organisation or group, excluding work overseas."

Our NT Seniors Voice survey, published to tie in with National Volunteer Week 2021 in May, revealed that just 26 volunteers (aged between 65 and 79) may be contributing over $600 000 of value to the NT every year (with each volunteer hour being valued at $52).

Most of these volunteers were helping not-for-profit neighbourhood groups or specific hobby groups and giving up to 5 hours of their time every week.

OTHER NEWS:

Nearly all surveyed agreed that volunteering was 'very satisfying' or 'satisfying' and most agreed that organisations running volunteer programs needed more support.

Survey respondents said they would like to see more monetary support and assistance, more encouragement from employers for employees to volunteer, assistance for organisations to recruit, train and retain their volunteers.

Our Club and Associate Member, Volunteering NT already provides a lot of support for volunteers.

And like them, COTA NT aims to support, recognise, acknowledge, and celebrate volunteers. We believe that seniors' volunteering contribution to the NT can be better documented, and we will be aiming to undertake another survey to get a truer picture of it.

We know from our connections with Katherine, that volunteering for many people is very much part of their everyday lives.

We would be very keen to hear about your volunteering work, so we can celebrate your contributions publicly. A photo and some words would be all that is needed.

You can send stories through to ntseniorsvoice@cotant.org.au or post them to us at NT Seniors Voice, GPO Box 852, Darwin NT 0801.

Katherine Volunteer Network meetings are an opportunity for volunteer anager and coordinators to come together to share ideas and discuss issues facing the volunteering sector.

It also provides an opportunity Volunteering NT to conduct face to face training sessions around topics that are relevant to the management of volunteers.

Next meeting: 2 November 2021, 1.30pm - 3.300pm Contour Hotel, Cnr Cypress Street and Stuart Highway. Contact Kim Cairns for more info, kym.cairns@volunteeringsa-nt.org.au.

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