Welcome to the team, Clutha!

Kaitūao o te Taitonga | Volunteer South is excited to announce more focused support for the Clutha district from April 2021. This support follows on from their dedicated strategy to increase voluntary sector participation in all areas of the Southern region, promoting volunteerism in their distinct areas.

Volunteer South has led the way in the last year with its response to volunteering, empowering volunteer-involving organisations and creating stronger, more connected communities. As well as providing important welfare support for the community during lockdown, the organisation opened volunteer centres in Invercargill and Waitaki and hubs in Mosgiel and South Dunedin. The importance of volunteering in local communities has led Volunteer South to ensure dedicated support is available for all our communities in the Southern region.

The Clutha district, encompassing Milton, Lawrence, Balclutha, Clinton and everything in between, will be able to access dedicated support from the Volunteer South team including the community connections, professional development and workshops. In March, Volunteer South provided the Clutha district with a dedicated Volunteer Engagement 101 workshop as the start of their increased engagement in the area and there are more workshops planned in the coming months.

Volunteer South is now calling on volunteer-involving organisations and community groups interested in promoting volunteer roles and wanting to get the best out of their volunteer programmes to get in touch with them. The beginning of 2021 saw a significant shift away from traditional interested volunteers to the youth generation - and their goals are quite different from those who have volunteered more frequently in the past. Member organisations can take advantage of Volunteer South’s visibility and profile to engage with these volunteers and create a more sustainable organisation through their volunteer programmes.

While there is currently no local person able to support the district, with the significant growth of Volunteer South in the last 18 months, Manager of the district, Leisa de Klerk, says to “watch this space”.

“We believe that our more rural communities directly benefit from locals supporting locals - and more importantly, that this support isn’t a one-off. We are here to stay.”