With the retirement of Aaron Lee from his position of Captain of the Bairnsdale Fire Brigade, I began to ponder the role of volunteers in our community.
We often think of volunteering as something we do for other people, we give our time to the local sporting club, CFA, school, community organisation, op shop or service group because somebody needs to do the work. What we sometimes overlook is that we receive just as much as the people we are helping.
Human beings have some very basic needs. We need to feel that we belong, that we matter, that we have some influence over our lives, that we can enjoy ourselves and that we have a degree of freedom to make our own choices. Volunteering can help satisfy every one of these needs. Perhaps the most obvious is our need for connection and belonging.
When we volunteer, we become part of something.
We meet people we may never otherwise have met and work alongside people of different ages, occupations and backgrounds.
Over time acquaintances often become friends and the organisation becomes part of our social world.
Research supports what many volunteers already know from experience.
Volunteering is associated with greater life satisfaction, happiness, self-esteem and mental wellbeing, with social connection and a sense of purpose appearing to be particularly important.
There is also something very satisfying about knowing we are useful. We all need to experience a sense of personal worth and achievement.
Being able to say, “I helped make that happen,” whether it was running a junior football match, helping at a school fete, fighting a bushfire or simply making someone a cup of tea, can give us a genuine sense of purpose. Interestingly, research in rural Victoria found that volunteers described exactly these sorts of benefits: stronger social connections, a greater sense of belonging, opportunities to give something back and the feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves, but volunteering doesn’t just benefit the volunteer.
Strong communities are built through relationships.
Every time people work together voluntarily, they create connections between people who might otherwise remain strangers.
Those connections gradually build trust. We begin to recognise one another, understand one another and develop the feeling that this is our community and we look after each other.
That is what we mean by community cohesion.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare identifies volunteering as one of the important ways people connect with others and contribute to their communities. Social connection, belonging and community involvement are themselves important contributors to wellbeing.
This becomes particularly important during difficult times.
Communities with strong networks of volunteers already have relationships, trust and ways of working together.
When fires, floods, personal tragedy or other challenges arrive, those connections matter enormously.
Of course, volunteering needs to remain a choice, if people feel pressured, taken for granted or overloaded, something valuable can quickly become another burden. Successful volunteer organisations recognise this, they value people, give them meaningful choices and make volunteering enjoyable.
To Aaron and all of the other volunteers in our community I say a heartfelt thank you.
Without you there would be no community, just a collection of strangers living near each other, and all of our lives would be much worse off.
