@article {bnh-8351, title = {Emergency Services Workforce 2030}, number = {669}, year = {2022}, month = {07/2022}, pages = {66}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

Australia{\textquoteright}s emergency management sector sits within an environment that is becoming ever more complex, dynamic and uncertain. This is due to factors like a growing population, changing climate, social and cultural change, and the impact of new technologies. At the same time, the nature of how we work, in both paid and voluntary ways, is also changing. Work is greatly influenced by changes in technology and lifestyle, and by increasing levels of interconnectivity and cross-boundary collaboration.

In this dynamic context, planning for the sustainability, effectiveness and wellbeing of the future emergency management workforce takes on considerable importance.

The workforces of Australia{\textquoteright}s fire, emergency services and rural land management agencies (referred to in this report as emergency service organisations) are crucial to Australia{\textquoteright}s emergency management capability. These workforces include career and volunteer members, they also include first responders as well as professional, technical, and administrative support staff and volunteers (hereafter referred to collectively as the emergency service workforce).

This report provides a consolidated, overview picture of emerging workforce challenges and opportunities likely to face emergency service organisations over the coming decade. It is a first step in bringing together the wide range of research that can inform and strengthen strategic workforce planning in these organisations.

The report presents a high-level summary of key trends and developments highlighted in research from beyond the emergency management sphere. It identifies potential implications of these trends and developments for the future emergency service workforce. It also highlights key Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) affiliated research that can assist workforce planners to understand and respond to these implications.

The bulk of the combined emergency service workforce are volunteers. According to the Productivity Commission, there were around 212,293 fire service volunteers and 23,897 state and territory emergency service volunteers across emergency service organisations in Australia in 2017-18 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2019). Volunteers therefore formed around 91\% of the fire service workforce, and 97\% of the state and territory emergency service workforce in that year. Furthermore, given the geographic size, changing risk profile, and demographic shifts in Australia, a heavy reliance on volunteers is likely to continue into the future. As such, volunteers and volunteering issues form a key component of the terrain covered in this report.

While focusing on the emergency service workforce, this report is also based on recognition that the emergency services are part of a wider emergency management workforce that is also diverse and changing. The complete emergency management workforce extends far beyond the emergency services to include the volunteer and paid workforces of not-for-profits active in recovery, local governments, wider community sector and faith-based organisations, government departments, private businesses and more. Increasingly, under the influence of changing community expectations, and policy goals of community resilience, shared responsibility, and clear risk ownership (COAG, 2011; Commonwealth of Australia, 2018), {\textquoteleft}unaffiliated{\textquoteright} community members and groups are also recognised as a valuable part of the emergency management workforce (AIDR, 2017).

Consequently, the future emergency management workforce is not going to be restricted to the affiliated volunteer and paid workforces of formal emergency service organisations. Therefore, this report considers the future emergency service workforce within the context of how it interacts with and forms a part of the wider emergency management workforce.

}, issn = {669}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Jane Chong and Patrick Dunlop} } @article {bnh-8352, title = {Emergency Services Workforce 2030: Changing landscape literature review}, number = {732}, year = {2022}, month = {07/2022}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Changing Landscape Literature Review collates a high-level evidence base around seven major themes in the changing landscape (i.e., the external environment) that fire, emergency service, and rural land management agencies operate in, and which will shape workforce planning and capability requirements over the next decade. It is an output of the Workforce 2030 project and is one of two literature reviews that summarise the research base underpinning a high-level integrative report of emerging workforce challenges and opportunities, Emergency Services Workforce 2030.

Workforce 2030 aimed to highlight major trends and developments likely to impact the future workforces of emergency service organisations, and their potential implications. The starting point for the project was a question:

What can research from outside the sphere of emergency management add to our knowledge of wider trends and developments likely to shape the future emergency services workforce, and their implications?

The seven themes included in the Changing Landscape Literature Review are: 1) demographic changes, 2) changing nature of work, 3) changes in volunteering, 4) physical technology, 5) digital technology, 6) shifting expectations, and changing risk. A second, accompanying literature review, the Changing Work Literature Review, focuses on another nine themes related to emergency service organisation{\textquoteright}s internal workforce management approaches and working environments.

}, issn = {732}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Jane Chong and Patrick Dunlop} } @article {bnh-8353, title = {Emergency Services Workforce 2030: Changing work literature review}, number = {733}, year = {2022}, month = {07/2022}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Changing Work Literature Review collates a high-level evidence base around nine major themes related to internal workforce management approaches and working environments of fire, emergency service, and rural land management agencies. It is an output of the Workforce 2030 project and is one of two literature reviews that summarise the research base underpinning a high-level integrative report of emerging workforce challenges and opportunities, Emergency Services Workforce 2030.

Workforce 2030 aimed to highlight major trends and developments likely to impact the future workforces of emergency service organisations, and their potential implications. The starting point for the project was a question:

What can research from outside the sphere of emergency management add to our knowledge of wider trends and developments likely to shape the future emergency services workforce, and their implications?

The Changing Work Literature Review focuses on nine themes relevant to changes that have implications for emergency service organisation{\textquoteright}s internal workforce management approaches and working environments: 1) Recruitment, assessment, and selection, 2) Socialisation and training, 3) Work design, 4) Diversity and inclusion, 5) Managing mental health and wellbeing, 6) Leadership, 7) Change management, 8) Managing an ageing workforce, and 9) Managing volunteer workforces.

}, issn = {733}, author = {Jane Chong and Blythe McLennan and Patrick Dunlop} } @article {bnh-8344, title = {Emergency volunteering 2030: Views from emergency response volunteer representatives}, number = {731}, year = {2022}, month = {05/2022}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

This report presents results from a qualitative survey completed by 72 representatives of emergency response volunteer groups and networks in Australia in 2018 and 2019. The purpose of the survey was to explore volunteer representatives{\textquoteright} views about changes in volunteering that have occurred in the past, key volunteering issues today, what a preferred future for emergency response volunteering looks like, and what needs to happen to move towards that future.

The survey was administered by RMIT University researchers as part of a research study for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC called Emergency volunteering 2030: Adapting the sector. {\textquoteleft}Adapting the sector{\textquoteright} is a foresight and scenario-planning study engaging with a wide range of stakeholders to identify the most important trends and uncertainties likely to shape the future of emergency volunteering, and to consider implications of alternative future volunteering scenarios for today{\textquoteright}s decision-making.

This report is one of a series of Environmental Scan reports that capture diverse stakeholder views of the current and emerging landscape of emergency volunteering. The research was approved and overseen by the RMIT University Human Ethics Advisory Network (project number CHEAN B 21057-08/17).

Context

Formal emergency response volunteering is a crucial and central component of the volunteering that supports communities before, during and after emergency events. The 250,000 odd emergency response volunteers form the bulk of the emergency response workforce in Australia. Emergency response volunteering is especially important in rural, regional and remote communities where volunteers provide many essential community services and where emergency response services are heavily, often entirely, volunteer based.

Ensuring the long-term sustainability of Australia{\textquoteright}s formal emergency response volunteer capacity is a key issue within the emergency management sector in the face of the changes and pressures in the modern landscape of volunteering. Many emergency management organisations are responding to the changing landscape with new volunteer strategies, models, and management practices but more needs to be done. This report endeavours to reinforce volunteer voices within current research, debates, and decisions regarding strategies for the future of emergency volunteering.

Key implications of this research

The implications provided here are first level observations prepared by the author. They are based on views that were gathered before the 2019/2020 Australian bushfire season began and before the COVID-19 pandemic. More complete implications will also be considered in conversation with key stakeholder groups.

  1. Volunteer representatives depict a situation today in which emergency response volunteering is being squeezed by pressures on three sides (socioeconomic and demographic shifts, government and organisation expectations and requirements, and community needs and expectations), such that the personal burden of volunteering is increasing.
  2. A partial mismatch may be developing between organisational expectations on emergency response volunteers, and the motivations and incentives underpinning this volunteering, which increases the risk of a significant {\textquoteleft}breach of psychological contract{\textquoteright} occurring.
  3. Related to this, responses from some volunteer representatives indicate a widening gap between the goals, values and priorities of some organisations and their volunteers exacerbated by professionalisation and corporatisation. While not a dominant theme in this report, the potential for this gap to continue to grow is concerning.
  4. Particularly younger and female volunteer representatives considered there to be a shortage of innovation and flexibility to address complex and multi-faceted challenges in their organisations, including amongst volunteers themselves. Many identified a need for cultural change to become more open and inclusive.
  5. Most volunteer representatives do not expect that current policy and management approaches will effectively enable vibrant and sustainable emergency response volunteering over the next decade, and they are concerned about the implications of this for communities.
  6. Positively, volunteer representative responses revealed five key foundations for vibrant volunteering over the next decade. They also suggested a wide range of priority actions that could strengthen these foundations. Half also identified initiatives that are doing well addressing current issues.
  7. With longer and fiercer bushfire seasons ahead, the issue of alleviating the personal financial burden of emergency response volunteering into the future needs to be carefully examined. A considerable minority of volunteer representatives anticipated that further remuneration or compensation of some kind could be needed in future.
  8. Volunteer representatives emphasized the importance of stronger governmental leadership and support to move towards a preferred future for emergency response volunteering.

Research approach

This research primarily used a qualitative, key informant survey with 72 representatives from emergency response volunteer groups across Australia. The survey was administered online in late 2018 and early 2019.

All participants represented volunteers from one of three general service categories: 35\% represented Victorian Country Fire Authority volunteers (CFA volunteers), 31\% represented fire service volunteers in other states and territories (including combined services), and 35\% represented volunteers in other emergency response services, (including state emergency services or SES, ambulance, surf life saving, and marine rescue).

}, issn = {731}, author = {Blythe McLennan} } @article {bnh-7791, title = {Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering - annual report 2019-2020}, number = {638}, year = {2021}, month = {01/2021}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project is a three-year project being jointly undertaken by researchers at RMIT University, the University of Western Australia, and Curtin University for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC). Now in its final year, it is the core project in the BNHCRC{\textquoteright}s research cluster on Sustainable Volunteering. The goal of this cluster is to improve the long-term sustainability of the emergency management volunteer workforce and better engage the potential of volunteering to build disaster resilience in Australian communities.

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project has two broad aims, each of which is addressed by a targeted package of work:

The project complements other active BNHCRC research projects, especially in the emergency management capability cluster (e.g. Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability and Catastrophic and cascading events: planning and capability projects). It also draws from work in two completed projects: the Bushfire CRC Volunteerism project (2003-2010) undertaken by researchers at La Trobe University (Birch, 2011) and the BNHCRC Out of uniform: building community resilience through non-traditional volunteering project (2015-2017), which was a precursor to the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project based at RMIT University (B. J. McLennan, Kruger, Handmer, \& Whittaker, 2017; B. J. McLennan, Whittaker, Kruger, \& Handmer, 2017).\ 

This Annual Report communicates the key activities and achievements of the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project in the 2019-2020 financial year. This was the third year of the project (see also B. J. McLennan et al., 2018). The research phase of the project is due to end in December 2020.

}, keywords = {Emergency, sustainable, volunteering. recruitment}, issn = {638}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Patrick Dunlop and Darja Kragt and Djurre Holtrop and Maryl{\`e}ne Gagn{\'e} and Aleksandra Luksyte and Hawa Farid} } @article {bnh-8139, title = {Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering {\textendash} final project report}, number = {695}, year = {2021}, month = {08/2021}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {MELBOURNE}, abstract = {

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project was jointly undertaken by researchers at RMIT University, the University of Western Australia, and Curtin University for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). It is the only core project in the CRC{\textquoteright}s research cluster on Sustainable Volunteering that is in active research phase. The goal of this cluster was to improve the long-term sustainability of the volunteer workforce, and better engage the potential of volunteering to build disaster resilience in Australian communities.

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project had two broad aims, each of which was addressed by a targeted package of work:

The project complemented other active CRC research projects, especially in the Emergency management capability cluster (e.g. Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability and Catastrophic and cascading events: planning and capability projects).\ It also drew from work in two completed projects: the Bushfire CRC Volunteerism project (2003-2010) undertaken by researchers at La Trobe University and the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Out of uniform: building community resilience through non-traditional volunteering project (2015-2017), which was a precursor to the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project based at RMIT University.\ 

This Final Report communicates the key activities and achievements of the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project in its entirety from July 2017, up to March 2021. It also describes a range of follow-on utilisation activities being undertaken from July 2020 to June 2021.

}, keywords = {Emergency, recruitment, sustainable, volunteering}, issn = {695}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Patrick Dunlop and Darja Kragt and Djurre Holtrop and Maryl{\`e}ne Gagn{\'e} and Aleksandra Luksyte and Hawa Farid} } @article {bnh-7870, title = {The influence of satellite imagery on landscape perception}, journal = {Landscape Research}, year = {2021}, month = {02/2021}, abstract = {

The perception of landscapes involves the process of categorising and differentiating surrounds according to sensory information and the experiences of individuals. Increasingly, due to the ubiquitous nature of virtual globe platforms, individuals are accessing visual information about their surrounding environment through satellite imagery. This investigation aims to examine how people{\textquoteright}s perceptions of landscapes are changing when our experiences increasingly occur in digital space, altering the perception paradigm from one where individuals analyse direct objects to one where indirect objects are key in the formation of their perceptions. A case study in Chile, South America, is used to explore the influence of satellite imagery with 52 survey participants responding to questions about land use and land cover (LULC) patterns of the area, before and after, unstructured exploration of the region using Google Earth. The results indicate that satellite imagery is influencing how individuals perceive LULC patterns within their direct surroundings.

}, keywords = {Google Earth, land cover, land use, landscape patterns, Landscape perception, satellite imagery}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2021.1886264}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01426397.2021.1886264}, author = {Daisy San Martin Saldias and Karin Reinke and Blythe McLennan and Luke Wallace} } @article {bnh-6985, title = {Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering: annual report 2018-19}, number = {574}, year = {2020}, month = {06/2020}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project is being jointly undertaken by researchers at RMIT University, the University of Western Australia, and Curtin University for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC). It is the only core project in the BNHCRC{\textquoteright}s research cluster on Sustainable Volunteering that is in active research phase. The goal of this cluster is to improve the long-term sustainability of the volunteer workforce, and better engage the potential of volunteering to build disaster resilience in Australian communities.

The Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project has two broad aims, each of which is addressed by a targeted package of work:

The project complements\ other active BNHCRC research projects, especially in the Emergency management capability cluster (e.g. Diversity and inclusion: building strength and capability and Catastrophic and cascading events: planning and capability projects). It also draws from work in two completed projects: the Bushfire CRC Volunteerism project (2003-2010) undertaken by researchers at La Trobe University and the BNHCRC Out of uniform: building community resilience through non-traditional volunteering project (2015-2017), which was a precursor to the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project based at RMIT University.\ 

This Annual Report communicates the key activities and achievements of the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering project in the 2018-2019 financial year. This was the second year of the project. The research phase of the project is due to end in June 2020.

}, keywords = {annual report, emergency volunteering, sustainable}, issn = {574}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Patrick Dunlop and Darja Kragt and Tarn Kruger and Djurre Holtrop and Maryl{\`e}ne Gagn{\'e} and Aleksandra Luksyte and Hawa Farid} } @article {bnh-6733, title = {Navigating authority and legitimacy when {\textquoteleft}outsider{\textquoteright} volunteers co-produce emergency management services}, journal = {Environmental Hazards}, year = {2020}, month = {02/2020}, abstract = {

This paper examines the thorny issue of authority and legitimacy in relation to {\textquoteleft}outsider{\textquoteright} emergency volunteering within the context of the community resilience policy agenda. Outsider emergency volunteering is any volunteering that: (a) aims to assist communities in any aspect of disaster preparedness, response, relief and recovery, and (b) is not registered with or under the direction of a formally recognised emergency management organisation (EMO). Hence, it does not have clear grounds to establish its authority and legitimacy within the formal authorising environment of the emergency management sector. The paper draws on co-production theory to examine how three important challenges for establishing authority and legitimacy were navigated in four Australian cases of co-production involving outsider emergency volunteering. Given the rise of resilience in disaster policy and the changing nature of volunteering in modern society, the very formalised and defined foundations of authority and legitimacy in emergency management will need to soften and expand to become more networked and distributed. The four cases described here shed some light on what softer and expanded foundations for authority and legitimacy can look like and the processes that can support them in the emergency management context.

}, keywords = {Australia, authority, co-production, Emergency management, legitimacy, Unaffiliated emergency volunteering}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2020.1727829}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17477891.2020.1727829}, author = {Blythe McLennan and J Whittaker and Tarn Kruger and John Handmer} } @article {bnh-5415, title = {Emergency Volunteering 2030: Views from Managers in Volunteerism}, number = {452}, year = {2019}, month = {02/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

What is emergency volunteering going to look like in 2030? How (and by whom) is it going to be organised?

How can the emergency management sector best enable the value of volunteering for communities - before, during and after an emergency - into the future?

This report provides answers to these questions from the perspectives of 34 managers that have responsibilities for volunteerism in Australian emergency management organisations (EMOs) working across preparedness, response, relief, and recovery. The report is one of a series of Environmental Scan reports that will be synthesised and presented to an expert panel to assist researchers in developing alternative scenarios for the future of emergency volunteering to inform today{\textquoteright}s decision making.

}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Tarn Kruger} } @article {bnh-5773, title = {Emergency volunteering 2030: Views from the community sector}, number = {500}, year = {2019}, month = {08/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

This report presents findings from an on-line, qualitative survey of 48 community sector representatives from across the states of Australia. The purpose of the survey was to find out more about the community sector in relation to emergency volunteering and to elicit the views of key community sector representatives about changes in the volunteering landscape that have occurred in the past and are occurring now; and about their visions for a preferred future for community sector volunteering that supports communities before, during and after emergency events.

}, keywords = {Emergency management, emergency volunteering, volunteers}, issn = {500}, author = {Tarn Kruger and Blythe McLennan} } @article {bnh-5610, title = {Emergency volunteering shared learning network}, number = {478}, year = {2019}, month = {06/2019}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The Emergency Volunteering Shared Learning Network (EVN) was established in September 2018, with the following goals:

The EVN was initially set up as a 6-month pilot project, sponsored by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC) in conjunction with the Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering research project.1 The EVN is convened by Blythe McLennan and Tarn Kruger from RMIT University.

The purpose of this report is to document the activities of the EVN during the pilot period, evaluate their impact and share learnings with the network{\textquoteright}s members as well as other BNHCRC researchers and end users. The report will also help to inform decisions about the next steps for the EVN.

}, keywords = {Citizen action, disaster, Emergence, Emergency, Informal volunteerism, resilience, volunteering}, issn = {478}, author = {Blythe McLennan} } @conference {bnh-6400, title = {What{\textquoteright}s wrong and what needs fixing? Stakeholder perspectives on making the future of emergency volunteering}, booktitle = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Research Day AFAC19}, year = {2019}, month = {12/2019}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The modern landscape of emergency volunteering in Australia is characterised by far-reaching change, converging challenges and emerging new opportunities. In this context, a key concern within the emergency management sector today is how the changing landscape threatens the long-term sustainability of Australia{\textquoteright}s formal emergency management volunteer capacity. Some volunteer-based emergency management organisations are responding to the changing landscape with new volunteer strategies, models and management practices. While the pace of change has picked up in recent years, overall it has been slow.

This paper posits that greater engagement in frame reflexive learning and practice can help enable further and faster adaption of emergency volunteering models and approaches to better meet the challenges and opportunities presented by the changing landscape. It aims to support frame reflexive learning and practice by articulating the different ways that {\textquoteright}what{\textquoteright}s wrong and what needs fixing{\textquoteright} is framed among a range of emergency volunteering stakeholder groups. The results are based on interviews and questionnaires conducted with over 180 stakeholders, including representatives from emergency service agencies, disaster welfare organisations, volunteer representative groups, volunteering peak bodies, local governments, and community sector organisations. The paper identifies and describes four key frames currently in use by stakeholders: Competition, Professionalisation, Expectation-Capacity Gap, and Culture Clash. It concludes that deeper and wider collaboration at the sector and community level is needed to enable frame reflexive practice through which multiple frames and their implications can be made more visible and a wider range of options for addressing complex cross-boundary volunteering problems revealed.

}, keywords = {Capability, Emergency management, voulnteering}, url = {https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/australian-journal-of-emergency-management-monograph-series/}, author = {Blythe McLennan} } @conference {bnh-4796, title = {Emergency volunteering 2030: a sector-wide, management perspective}, booktitle = {AFAC18}, year = {2018}, month = {09/2018}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Perth}, abstract = {

What is emergency volunteering going to look like in 2030? How (and by whom) is it going to be organised? How can the emergency management sector best enable the value of this volunteering for communities - before, during and after emergencies? Researchers at RMIT University are seeking answers to these questions in a three-year project for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC.\  This presentation shares insights from the first stage of this project. It provides a sector-wide, management perspective on what the sector most needs to do to adapt to the future of volunteering. It is based on interviews with 27 managers in volunteerism from across Australian government and non-government emergency management organisations (EMOs).\  Volunteerism managers paint a strong picture of the preferred future as being one where volunteering and management approaches are more flexible and adaptive to the needs of both communities and volunteers, where EMOs have stronger cultures of volunteerism, and where the sector is far more outward-looking and collaborative in its service delivery than it is today. While past research on the sustainability of emergency volunteering has mostly focused on activity at the level of specific management practices, volunteerism managers earmark changes needed at organisational and sector levels. These changes even extend into potential redesign of the ways in which emergency management services are provided to communities in different settings, as well as who is involved in providing them.

}, author = {Tarn Kruger and Blythe McLennan} } @article {bnh-5195, title = {Emergency volunteering 2030: views from local government managers}, year = {2018}, month = {12/2018}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

This report presents views on the future of emergency volunteering from\ local government and local government association managers across\ Australia that have recent experience with this volunteering.

In this report, emergency volunteering means all types of volunteering that\ supports communities before, during and after a disaster or emergency,\ regardless of its particular organisational affiliation, or lack thereof. It\ includes formal volunteers affiliated with volunteer-based emergency\ management organisations (EMOs) as well as the diverse and growing\ types of formal and informal volunteering that supports communities\ before, during and after a disaster but is not affiliated with an EMO.

The landscape of emergency volunteering is characterised by far-reaching\ change, converging challenges and emerging new opportunities. A key\ concern today is how the changing landscape is putting pressure on the\ long-term sustainability of Australia{\textquoteright}s formal emergency management\ volunteer capacity. However, the changing landscape also opens doors\ onto new and innovative ways for organisations to enable and enhance\ the value of volunteering for communities.

Local government managers clearly see a need for change in the\ emergency management (EM) sector with respect to volunteering and\ volunteer management, and the councils represented in these interviews\ are trialling and developing new management approaches in response.\ 

These interviews flag a looming need to examine how resourcing and\ funding options and restrictions may impact on the ability of the EM sector\ to adapt to the changing landscape of volunteering.

Many of the things that local government managers see as necessary to\ move the sector towards a preferred future for emergency volunteering are\ beyond the control of a single organisation to deliver. Certainly, many are\ beyond the reach of an individual council. They will require collaborative,\ and boundary-spanning approaches involving organisations within and\ beyond the EM sector.\ 

Future strategic planning for volunteering in the EM sector will benefit from strong representation from local government stakeholders in order to build an effective, enabling environment for local level volunteering and volunteer coordination into the future.

This report is one of a series of Environmental Scan reports being prepared through the Emergency volunteering 2030: Adapting the sector project to capture diverse views of the current and emerging landscape of emergency volunteering. The reports will be used to develop alternative future scenarios for emergency volunteering to inform today{\textquoteright}s decision-making

}, issn = {430}, author = {Tarn Kruger and Blythe McLennan} } @article {bnh-5038, title = {Enabling sustainable emergency volunteering: annual project report 2017-18}, year = {2018}, month = {11/2018}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, abstract = {

An inexorable link exists between volunteerism and community capability and resilience with respect to disaster risk. Communities and governments increasingly expect emergency management organisations (EMOs) to actively enable and enhance the value of volunteering for communities with respect to building community capability and resilience. This is strongly reflected in disaster management policy in Australia, embodied in the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience (COAG, 2011). It is also evident in the United Nation{\textquoteright}s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction that calls on Nations to encourage {\textquotedblleft}Civil society, volunteers, organized voluntary work organizations and community based organizations to{\textquotedblright}, amongst other things, {\textquotedblleft}advocate for resilient communities and an inclusive and all-of-society disaster risk management that strengthen synergies across groups.{\textquotedblright} (UNISDR, 2015, p.23)\ 

}, issn = {423}, author = {Blythe McLennan and Patrick Dunlop and Darja Kragt and Tarn Kruger and Djurre Holtrop and Maryl{\`e}ne Gagn{\'e} and Aleksandra Luksyte and John Handmer} } @conference {bnh-4802, title = {Volunteering into the future {\textendash} disaster events, local governments \& communities}, booktitle = {AFAC18}, year = {2018}, month = {09/2018}, publisher = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, organization = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Perth}, abstract = {

This century presents us with many environmental challenges and the various types of hazardous events can impact urban, rural and remote communities in different ways. In Australia, councils are the closest level of government to community and many are planning and trialing a range of options to better deal with future disaster events.

The paper reports on findings from RMIT University researchers{\textquoteright} first stage of a Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project. The research looks at how the emergency management sector over the next decade can best enable the value of volunteering for communities before, during and after emergencies. It explores local governments{\textquoteright} experiences with volunteering around disaster recovery and their views about a preferred future for this volunteering. It describes some of the ways councils work together with community groups and volunteers both trained and those who come forth in response to a disaster, to enhance resilience and recovery.

The research considers ideas about the emergency management (EM) sector and the need to shift and draw upon different perspectives to involve different people to broaden approaches. Improving governance structures, particularly at the state level was considered essential for moving towards the preferred future. There is a need for on-going investment in the provision of a supportive and enabling infrastructure for volunteering such as state-wide data-bases. These can enable engagement, recruitment and preparation of volunteers from across regions to support local government and communities. Interviewees highlighted the need for reform in disaster funding for the recovery process as critical and the need for ratification between state and federal government so local governments and communities have confidence in the EM space. This paper will provide a picture of what the future might look like as local governments strive to adapt to the challenges of the 21st century.

}, author = {Tarn Kruger and Blythe McLennan} } @article {bnh-7917, title = {The changing landscape of disaster volunteering: opportunities, responses and gaps in Australia}, journal = {Natural Hazards}, volume = {84}, year = {2016}, month = {08/2016}, chapter = {2031}, abstract = {

There is a growing expectation that volunteers will have a greater role in disaster management in the future compared to the past. This is driven largely by a growing focus on building resilience to disasters. At the same time, the wider landscape of volunteering is fundamentally changing in the twenty-first century. This paper considers implications of this changing landscape for the resilience agenda in disaster management, with a focus on Australia. It first reviews major forces and trends impacting on disaster volunteering, highlighting four key developments: the growth of more diverse and episodic volunteering styles, the impact of new communications technology, greater private sector involvement and growing government expectations of and intervention in the voluntary sector. It then examines opportunities in this changing landscape for the Australian emergency management sector across five key strategic areas and provides examples of Australian responses to these opportunities to date. The five areas of focus are: developing more flexible volunteering strategies, harnessing spontaneous volunteering, building capacity to engage digital (and digitally enabled) volunteers, tapping into the growth of employee and skills-based volunteering and co-producing community-based disaster risk reduction. Although there have been considerable steps taken in Australia in some of these areas, overall there is still a long way to go before the sector can take full advantage of emerging opportunities. The paper thus concludes by identifying important research and practice gaps in this area.

}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-016-2532-5}, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11069-016-2532-5}, author = {Blythe McLennan and J Whittaker and John Handmer} } @article {bnh-2561, title = {Extending into community-led preparedness and planning just enough (but not too much?)}, journal = {Australian Journal of Emergency Management}, volume = {31}, year = {2016}, month = {02/2016}, abstract = {

How can a well-organised, capable, and respected community group help improve local community bushfire safety and build resilience in a high risk area? That is the question the research team for the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Out of Uniform project1 explored in a case study of a community-led bushfire preparedness project called Be Ready Warrandyte. Along the way, the case study raised questions about the appetite of the emergency management sector for supporting community-led preparedness and planning.\ 

}, url = {https://ajem.infoservices.com.au/items/AJEM-31-01-02}, author = {Blythe McLennan} }