The national standards for volunteer involvement: 2015

Volunteering Australia’s new national standards for volunteer involvement update standards produced in 1998 and 2001 and provide a sound framework for supporting the volunteer sector in Australia. Introduction Volunteer involvement is a critical part of Australian society. It contributes to civil society and active participation in building strong, inclusive, and resilient communities. It underlies innovation and social change, our responses to community need and community challenges, and it brings together and supports the local strengths and assets of communities. There are important benefits to both organisations and to volunteers when volunteers become involved in organisations. Volunteer involvement can contribute to, and extend the capacity of, organisations to meet aims and goals. Volunteers can provide the time, skills, expertise and points of view that enable an organisation to pursue programs and activities that benefit the community. For individuals, volunteering provides an opportunity to be involved in activities reflecting their interests and using their skills. Meaningful activity in turn promotes a sense of belonging and general wellbeing. Volunteering can also be a way to develop skills, potential pathways to employment, or a way to contribute existing skills for the common good. Volunteer involvement is a two-way relationship, providing an opportunity for organisations to achieve their goals by involving volunteers in their activities, and for volunteers to make meaningful use of their time and skills, contributing to social and community outcomes. The National Standards allow organisations to make use of simple, practical criteria across a broad range of volunteering situations. There are 8 standards addressing the key areas of volunteer involvement: 1. Leadership and management 2. Commitment to volunteer involvement 3. Volunteer roles 4. Recruitment and selection 5. Support and development 6. Workplace safety and wellbeing 7. Volunteer recognition 8. Quality management and continuous improvemen

Muslim active citizenship in Australia: Socioeconomic challenges and the emergence of a Muslim elite

The most recent national Census demonstrated that Australian Muslims continue to occupy a socioeconomically disadvantaged position. On key indicators of unemployment rate, income, type of occupation and home ownership, Muslims consistently under-perform the national average. This pattern is evident in the last three Census data (2001, 2006 and 2011). Limited access to resources and a sense of marginalisation challenge full engagement with society and the natural growth of emotional affiliation with Australia. Muslim active citizenship is hampered by socioeconomic barriers. At the same time, an increasingly proactive class of educated Muslim elite has emerged to claim a voice for Muslims in Australia and promote citizenship rights and responsibilities. <br /

Disaster risk reduction beyond command and control: mapping an Australian wildfire from a complex adaptive system’s perspective

This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities of employing a resilience-building perspective to disaster risk reduction in the context of wildfires. It maps the evolving concept of resilience and its incorporation by different disciplines and by government agencies through policy formulation and implementation in Victoria, Australia—one of the most wildfire-prone areas in the world. In addition to semistructured interviews and direct observation, data collection targeted reports, meeting minutes, legislation, news articles, newsletters, and institutional social media relating to the 2015 Wye River-Jamieson Track Fires. Data were analyzed following a Grounded Theory approach supported by NVivo 12. Findings point to the implementation of disaster risk reduction strategies that emphasize emergency management services and the resilience of local communities. These strategies incorporate natural systems from an anthropocentric ecosystem services perspective, there being room for greater collective understanding of the links between individual/site vulnerability/resilience and community/settlement vulnerability/resilience as part of the concept of shared responsibility