The Queenstown Disaster Welfare Support Team (DWST) gained five new volunteers from a speed dating event held in Wakatipu by Volunteer South as part of this year’s Volunteer Week.
Area 7 Senior Area Partner Callum Clark says sharing knowledge through the new Area Model helps raise awareness of events that can attract more volunteers to New Zealand Red Cross.
“During our area tour in May we heard from the DWST team in Queenstown that they would like to increase volunteer numbers so this made us consider the issue and when the Volunteer South event came up it seemed like a good fit.”
Speed dating event attracts volunteers
The event used a speed dating format with all attendees interacting with every volunteer organisation. Callum says this meant that people who might not have considered volunteering with New Zealand Red Cross could chat with the team and find out about the opportunities on offer for volunteers.
“The speed dating aspect of the event meant everyone had a chance to talk to all the volunteer organisations which seemed to work well for us. It makes the whole event more fun and interactive.
“We now have 15 volunteers in the Queenstown DWST team, so it was a good result with five new volunteers joining in July due to the event.”
Working together to attract more volunteers
Meanwhile, Volunteer Programme Lead for migration, Darren Frazer, who is based in Invercargill, says he is keen to see more volunteers signing up to work with former refugees settling in Southland. He says that work underway to develop innovative approaches to encourage more volunteers to get involved will help former refugees to feel at home in Aotearoa New Zealand.
“Making it easier for people to sign up and making it faster to navigate the process through the website will help. Appealing to people’s hearts and highlighting our success stories means that people with an interest in volunteering can gain a sense of purpose from helping others to adjust to life in a new country.”
Darren and Callum are both actively involved in ongoing work to find better ways to attract more volunteers to New Zealand Red Cross on a national level.
Who is leading the work?
Suzanne Vowles, Director Membership and Volunteering is leading this programme of work to attract more volunteers.
General Managers Fiona Ross and Sean Stewart are leading the Area Model project under our Realising 2030 Programme.
Learn more
To learn more about volunteering visit our volunteering page.
Header image credit: Sharing ideas on how to develop a stronger youth voice and ways to attract young people to Red Cross were key themes at a recent hui for youth councillors held in Wellington. Back row from left: Dan Wilden (Area 7 Youth Councillor), Sarita Love (National Youth Representative), Brydon Sundgren (Area 2 Youth Councillor), Casey Glover (Area 6 Youth Councillor), Ronal Reddy (Area 1 Youth Councillor), front row from left: Dilukshi Thurairajah (Area 1 Youth Councillor), Rachel Wilson (Area 5 Youth Councillor), Tayler Everett (Area 3 Youth Councillor), Lauren McInnes (Area 4 Youth Councillor)