Disability Inclusive Volunteering (DIV)

Disability Inclusive Volunteering Project Report 2020 – 2024  The goal of the Disability Inclusive Volunteering project was to increase the number of organisations (who engage volunteers) who are disability inclusive, within the City of Greater Dandenong.  These organisations would have an improved understanding of disability inclusion and would be better able to recruit, support and retain people with a disability in meaningful volunteer roles. The Disability Inclusive Volunteering project worked with organisations within the City of Greater Dandenong, who engage volunteers or are volunteer led. The structure of the program consisted of both workshops and tailored in-house support across 3 rounds between 2020 and 2024. A large amount of resources and tools were developed and made available online, to the participating organisations, along with a ‘Community of Practice’. The content of the workshops was collaboratively designed with people with a lived experience of a disability (the Disability Advisory Group).  The project also worked with an Organisation Advisory Group to assist with the development and presentation of the workshops.

PRE-WORK

Victoria ALIVE project

People with a disability can find it difficult to get and keep a meaningful volunteer role. This may negatively impact their confidence, mental and physical well-being. In 2018-19, the State Government funded the Victoria ALIVE project (www.victoriaalive.org.au) to explore and address concerns for people with a disability, and Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIOs).  The project identified multiple barriers to volunteering, for people with a disability, both practical and systemic. The final Victoria ALIVE Project Outcomes Report made seven recommendations to support disability inclusive volunteering across the sector. Two of these included developing a ‘disability inclusive volunteer management training package’ and providing ‘outreach to volunteer involving organisations’2. The Disability Inclusive Volunteering Project has responded to these recommendations.

   

Phase 1
Funding, planning and development		The project was funded by a ‘Strategic Projects‘ grant from the City of Greater Dandenong for a 2 year period in 2020 and again in 2022. Three rounds of capacity building workshops (3 half days), were developed, along with in-house support (3 two hour sessions), related resources and tools, across a 10-month period (with a change of coordinator). The workshop content, and resource materials, were developed, and presented, in conjunction with: ·        The Organisation Advisory Group – 7 members ·        The Disability Advisory Group (people with a lived experience) – 6 members ·        Two co-facilitators ·        Guest speakers ·        South East Volunteers CEO Ann Burgess (now retired) The content of the workshops included: Workshop 1 – history of disability, disability legislation and reforms, what is disability?, models of disability, invisible disabilities, motivation to volunteer and a guest speaker. Workshop 2 – self-assessments, disability inclusive volunteering, inclusion statements, ladder of inclusivity, accessible documents, volunteer recruitment – role design, disability action plans and a guest speaker. Workshop 3 – volunteer recruitment – interview, forms, onboarding and retention.

   

Phase 2

Delivery – Sept 2021 to May 2024

Initially the funding covered the period July 2020 to June 2022, however, we were successful in securing further funding for the program to continue to May 2024. The in-house sessions provided the organisations with an opportunity to complete an assessment of the organisations disability inclusiveness and, maybe, provide some action planning. There were 24 organisations who took part in the program (8 series of workshops were available) with 38 people from those organisations attending. Tools developed and used during the tailored in-house sessions include self-assessments, inclusion statements and a disability action plan template. A large amount of resources were also developed for the participating organisations and available in both hard copy and online and included fact sheets, links to videos, articles, podcasts and tv programmes. A number of videos were also used within the workshop presentations, which are listed and available on the ‘Further Learning’ page on the Greater Dandenong Volunteer Resource Service website – Link to the Further Learning page on the GDVRS website. The Disability Advisory Group had monthly meetings online due to Covid restrictions, however, when restrictions were eased in 2022, meetings were planned to be face to face.  Members of the group did not attend the meetings when they were face to face, so we returned to online meetings from April 2022 and also combined the 2 groups into one.

 

Phase 3

EVALUATION

Participating organisations completed surveys prior to and post the workshops. Feedback and post workshop surveys confirmed that disability inclusion knowledge and confidence increased after attending the 3 workshops. This program could easily to expanded to be an inclusion program of a broader scope, to include age, gender, race, LGBTQI+, long term unemployed, refugees and migrants. It should also include assistance for people who want to volunteer but are facing barriers and intersectionality. A funding application has been submitted to the City of Greater Dandenong for Phase 2 of the DIV program, to be able to provide a program for people who face multiple barriers and want to connect with their community. We would also work with the organisations which the person is trying to connect with and ensure that they are inclusive. The organisations could be anything in the community, such as a library, gym, support service or social group, this program will not be restricted to volunteering only or organisations who engage volunteers only.

   

FEEDBACK & LINKs

Feedback from participants of the program include: ·       The workshop is very helpful and your resources are fantastic. Thank you so much ·       Great info, well paced, practical. I hope they keep running this awareness training. 10/10 ·       I found the practical aspects of engaging people with disability in work or volunteering very insightful.  Would love to hear more about working with people with autism. ·       Loved hearing from your speakers, so insightful and meaningful – much appreciated ·       Thank you, well planned and well delivered. ·       Great insights by both facilitators with lots of variety of examples through the videos and other stories. Great suggestions from the group on how we can apply improvements already. Disability Inclusive Volunteering website Further Learning online Resources online