Australia in Need of More Young Volunteers

COVID plus the cost-of-living crisis has meant the vountary sector is struggling. A new campaign aims to encourage young people to step up.

Volunteers prepare food hampers for flood-affected residents at the Hawkesbury’s Helping Hands community organisation in the suburb of South Windsor in Sydney, Australia, on July 6, 2022. Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Volunteering in Australia has been declining since 2010 and dropped sharply in 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, 83 percent of organisations that rely on volunteers say they need more.

Volunteer Australia, the national peak body, estimates that 36 percent of adults gave their time to community organisations prior to the pandemic. By April 2021, that had dropped to 24.2 percent, and although it had picked up to 26.7 percent a year later, a lack of volunteers is still hampering the delivery of a range of community services.