@article {bnh-4217, title = {Out of uniform - building resilience through non-traditional volunteering: annual report 2016-17}, number = {327}, year = {2017}, month = {09/2017}, institution = {Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC}, address = {Melbourne}, abstract = {

The traditional model of emergency volunteering in Australia is based on formal, accredited volunteers who are affiliated with emergency management organisations, and are mostly involved in response and recovery roles [e.g. 14]. This form of volunteering is crucial and has many strengths. However, planning solely for this form of volunteering by EMOs excludes the potentially large number of people who are motivated to volunteer before, during and after emergencies in other, less ongoing and more informal ways, and without direct affiliation with established emergency management organisations (EMOs).

At the same time, the landscape of volunteering is undergoing significant change, in Australia and internationally. Large-scale socioeconomic changes have recast the conditions in which people volunteer in the 21st Century [12, 15]. As a result, emergency managers can expect to engage with a much wider and more diverse range of volunteers than in the past. These volunteers bring new opportunities, but also risks.

There are considerable benefits to be realised from greater engagement with these more diverse and, from the perspective of established emergency management organisations (EMOs) {\textquoteleft}non-traditional{\textquoteright}, emergency volunteers. With disaster risk increasing worldwide due to population growth, urban development and climate change [16] it is likely that non-traditional volunteers will provide much of the additional surge capacity required to respond to more frequent emergencies and disasters in the future. There is also a significant and largely untapped opportunity for EMOs to contribute to community resilience by supporting non-traditional emergency volunteers in new ways.

}, issn = {327}, author = {John Handmer and J Whittaker and Tarn Kruger} }