Volunteerability

Volunteerability is a program aimed at creating more inclusive communities for people with disability by supporting the inclusiveness of volunteers and Volunteer Involving Organisations (VIO’s). Volunteerability is funded through an Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC) Grant by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)

Volunteers are a critical part of community life, with 900,000 people volunteering their time regularly in South Australia alone. Volunteers provide support in the community in almost all facets of life, from sporting clubs to cultural services and to all ages from children and youth through to aged care. The need for the program has been widely documented. Identified through barriers that people with disabilities encounter in their lives, including when seeking volunteer roles. This is often a result of misconceptions and misinformation about people with disability. By focusing on volunteers the program is able to influence community life to be more inclusive and promote the social inclusion of people with disability in the community.

All organisations should feel comfortable recruiting people with disability and utilising their skills, abilities and contribution to benefit their organisation. Volunteerability is working to achieve this by:

• Developing and delivering Disability Awareness training to volunteers and VIO’s in metropolitan and regional South Australia to increase understanding and promoting inclusion of people with disability.

• Supporting the placement of people with disability in volunteer roles with the assistance of a Volunteer Helper and work with host VIOs to be more inclusive in their approach to recruiting and maintaining people with disability in volunteer roles.

www.volunteerability.com.au

About the Program Partners

Orana Australia Limited is the lead organisation for Volunteerability. As a not-for-profit organisation Orana has played a vital role in supporting South Australians living with disability for 70 years. This is achieved by creating opportunities for people with disability to live the life of their choosing through a range of supported employment, housing, short term accommodation, skills coordination and daily support. Orana’s aim is to provide people with disability the chance to live and work as part of the community, as independently as possible. Orana provides support to over 500 people across both metropolitan and regional South Australia.