{"id":224413,"date":"2017-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/may-2017-volunteering\/"},"modified":"2023-07-07T16:48:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T06:48:36","slug":"may-2017-volunteering","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/document\/may-2017-volunteering\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id='introduction'  id=\"boomdevs_1\" >            Introduction        <\/h2>\n<p>Relationships Australia has previously explored different aspects of community participation in the monthly online survey.\u00a0 This includes levels of participation in particular activities that are associated with positive wellbeing, and relationships between participation and people\u2019s perception of their local neighbourhood, including whether they feel it is safe and has good local facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Where individuals participate in their community through volunteering, there is a growing body of research that indicates individual health and social benefits for both volunteers and the community.\u00a0 In one US study, for example, volunteers were found to have lower mortality rates, greater functional ability, and lower rates of depression later in life than those who do not volunteer. \u00a0These positive effects are most significant for older volunteers and authors have postulated that this could be because volunteering provides them with physical and social activity and a sense of purpose at a time when their social roles are changing.<\/p>\n<p>In May 2017, Relationships Australia\u2019s monthly online survey asked website visitors to report on their level of volunteering and perceptions of the benefits of volunteering to both recipients and volunteers.<\/p>\n<h2 id='previous-research-finds-that'  id=\"boomdevs_2\" >            Previous research finds that\u2026        <\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In a South Australian study in 2016, the most common way the formal volunteers surveyed became involved in volunteering was: \u2018involvement with a club\/association\u2019 (21%); followed by \u2018someone asked me\u2019 (19%); a \u2018family history\/culture of volunteering\u2019 (15%); and \u2018through my children\u2019s school\u2019 (12%).<\/li>\n<li>Reasons cited for volunteering include personal satisfaction, to feel part of the community, friendship and increased self-esteem.<\/li>\n<li>Perceived benefits to recipients of volunteering included: \u2018people get help they wouldn\u2019t otherwise get\u2019 (24%); \u2018many community projects\/programs would cease to exist\u2019 (21%); and \u2018many organisations would cease to exist\u2019 (20%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 id='results'  id=\"boomdevs_3\" >            Results        <\/h2>\n<p>Just under 1,200 people responded to the Relationships Australia online survey in May 2017.\u00a0 More than three-quarters of survey respondents identified as female, with more females than males responding in every age group (see Figure 1 below). \u00a0Eighty-four per cent of survey respondents were aged between 20\u201159 years, and more than half of the respondents comprised women aged between 30-49 years (inclusive).<\/p>\n<p>As for previous surveys, the demographic profile of survey respondents remains consistent with our experience of the groups of people that would be accessing the Relationships Australia website.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/RAsurvey2017Junefig01.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>Both male and female survey respondents reported that they thought volunteering provided a great deal of benefit to the community.\u00a0 Women (77%) were more likely than men (70%) to report that the community benefits a great deal from volunteering, while only four per cent of men and women reported that volunteering provided little or no benefit to the community.\u00a0 The perceived benefits of volunteering most commonly reported included: \u2018increased opportunities for social connection\u2019; \u2018have access to services that would otherwise be expensive or unavailable\u2019; \u2018improved general happiness\u2019 and \u2018improved mental health\u2019 (figure 2).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/RAsurvey2017Junefig02.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>Ratings of the personal benefits of volunteering were lower than levels of perceived benefits reported for recipients of volunteering.<\/p>\n<p>Women (63%) were more likely than men (47%) to report that volunteers received a \u2018great deal\u2019 of personal benefit from volunteering, while men (44%) were more likely than women (29%) to report that volunteers received a \u2018fair bit\u2019 of personal benefit from volunteering.\u00a0 Ten per cent of survey respondents reported that there was little or no personal benefit from volunteering.<\/p>\n<p>Perceived personal benefits of volunteering most commonly included: \u2018greater opportunity for social connection\u2019; \u2018opportunities for skill development\u2019; and \u2018improved general happiness\u2019.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/RAsurvey2017Junefig03.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>The most commonly reported sources of volunteering opportunities included word of mouth, volunteering support organisations, community websites and traditional or social media (figure 4).\u00a0 Women (29%) were more likely than men (22%) to report community websites as a source of volunteering opportunities, while men were more likely to report the other three most common sources of volunteering opportunities.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/RAsurvey2017Junefig04.gif\"><\/p>\n<p>Overall, female survey respondents (65%) were more likely to volunteer than males (61%).\u00a0 Of those people who reported that they currently volunteer, men (12%) were more likely than women (6%) to report longer hours of volunteering.<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/RAsurvey2017Junefig05.gif\"><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/oldra.mooball.biz\/what-we-do\/research\/online-survey\/may-2017-volunteering\"><\/p>\n<h2 id='references'  id=\"boomdevs_4\" >            References         <\/h2>\n<p>Anik, L, Aknin, L, Norton, M, &amp; Dunn, E. (2009). The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behaviour, Working paper 10\/012, available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Publication%20Files\/10-012.pdf\">http:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Publication%20Files\/10-012.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008). Australian Social Trends, cat. no. 4102.0<\/p>\n<p>Berry, H.L. &amp; Shipley, M. (2009). Longing to belong: personal social capital and psychological distress in an Australian coastal region. <i>Social Policy Research Paper No. 39<\/i>. Canberra.<\/p>\n<p>South Australian Government, Office of volunteering (2016),\u00a0 Volunteering in South Australia available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ofv.sa.gov.au\/publications-and-research\/volunteer-survey\">http:\/\/www.ofv.sa.gov.au\/publications-and-research\/volunteer-survey<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 id='acknowledgement'  id=\"boomdevs_5\" >Acknowledgement<\/h2>\n<p>Relationships Australia would like to acknowledge Volunteering and Contact ACT for their assistance in drafting the questions for the May 2017 monthly survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introduction Relationships Australia has previously explored different aspects of community participation in the monthly online survey.\u00a0 This includes levels of participation in particular activities that are associated with positive wellbeing, and relationships between participation and people\u2019s perception of their local neighbourhood, including whether they feel it is safe and has good local facilities. Where individuals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[27,6],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-224413","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","category-research","category-surveys","tag-mental-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231032,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/224413\/revisions\/231032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}