Maureen Pugh: A thanks for all the thankless work during Volunteer Week

Good on you lot. A big rubbish clean-up in Raumanga, in the south of Whangarei, attracted 45 volunteers. Photo / Nicholas Connop

OPINION

I am not the first to say that the volunteer and community sector are the backbone of our country.

You don't have to look far in any New Zealand community to find everyday people helping other everyday people. Those wonderful community members are consistently providing resilience and cohesion in the community.

Last year's lockdown put a real spotlight on exactly what the voluntary sector provides, and unsurprisingly it was a massive effort that resourced our less-able through the tough first weeks of the Covid pandemic.

The interesting thing is that not everyone who lends a hand is looking for any particular recognition.

They simply just keep on turning up and helping out where they see a need. The statisticians call it "informal volunteering", helping someone, who is not a family member, with basic tasks such as cleaning, gardening or shopping.

Volunteering New Zealand's webpage on Volunteering Statistics says almost 12 per cent of New Zealanders informally contribute around 7.8 million hours to their community each year. It's also interesting that 81 per cent of people cited "giving back to the community" among their reasons for choosing to volunteer, 20 per cent did it to make friends; 15 per cent to appease a friend; along with lesser numbers who wanted to gain work experience or enhance their CV.

But that's not the most impressive figure to appreciate when talking about the contributions 21.5 per cent of New Zealanders make every year to "formal volunteering": a total of 159 million hours of formal volunteer labour, worth an estimated $4 billion annually, is an incredible and selfless commitment by many people.

But there are changes and challenges emerging on the Volunteer and Community Sector's horizon, no doubt hastened by the long-lasting social effects of Covid-19. These challenges need to be planned for now.

Maureen Pugh. Photo / Supplied

We are all aware of our ageing population, and this demographic factor is a major challenge cited by more than a third of our volunteer organisations. Challenges in attracting younger volunteers go hand-in-hand with this, along with the expectations of volunteers which are changing as factors like transport costs, traffic and busy lives impinge on their free time, whilst long-term commitments remain strong, shorter-term projects are being preferred.

From the Government down, better recognition for volunteers is needed. Every award and every bit of publicity to voluntary efforts lets the wider public know what's happening and what the possibilities for participation are. But word-of-mouth remains the most frequent way people start out in unpaid work, so there can never be enough of that sort of publicity to generate more participation and enhance the rewards of volunteering.

My hope for the coming year is that volunteer organisations do not become bogged down in administration and regulatory compliance so that their wonderful efforts remain focussed on the task at hand – improving the lives of others.

And to the largely silent and unrecognised volunteers who make the tea, sweep the hall and turn up to working bees, please take a huge bow for the massive contribution you make. This is the one week in the year in which we recognise what you do for your communities, so we say a huge "thank you".

• MP Maureen Pugh is National's spokesperson on the community and voluntary sector.