What I spoke about at the Jobs Australia conference
Marijke Fotia presenting at the Jobs Australia conference
When I was given the opportunity to speak at the Jobs Australia conference at the end of May, I knew exactly what I was going to talk about.
The lessons I’ve learnt from scaling up and then back down during the pandemic.
Looking back to last year, Volunteer West had some significant changes. From the successful Working for Victoria funding application of $1million, onboarding 28 staff members for a six-month period, to finally reducing staff back down to a few, there were many highs and lows.
The Working for Victoria Fund was designed to connect workers with new opportunities that will contribute to Victoria’s ability to respond to the pandemic. To better help our community.
We initially applied for $300k, but after we were encouraged to scale up, we resubmitted our applications for $1million, our most ambitious funding application to date.
This big chunk of funding covered 21 new roles within Volunteer West, made up of 18 full time and 10 part time staff.
The VolConnect project began in January 2021.
We sifted through 270 applications
created a shortlist
and conducted 70 interviews!
Finally, we had our 28 new starters to join our team of 5.
That’s a lot of new people for our small Volunteer Resource Centre.
We knew this project would only work through a flexible working approach, like many organisations have come to appreciate in the past few years. Without a regular office space, we navigated meetings in hired community halls, meeting rooms and cafes.
Lockdowns, social distancing and isolating staff made things trickier.
Despite the yo-yo restrictions, we persevered, making teams meetings or outdoor catch ups the norm.
Having more staff meant we could go bigger and make a larger impact.
I’m still impressed with what we achieved through the short six-month period.
We referred 741 volunteers
Ran 35 training sessions with 301 participants
Put on 11 outreach events
Developed and launched our CRM
Made significant website updates
Launched WestSeed which connected 119 volunteer involving organisations
Grew our Volunteer Engagement Network to 90 members, running 10 meetings focussing on relevant industry topics
Conducted 5 research projects looking into volunteer management, youth volunteering and more
We became a leading voice in the National Networks of Volunteer Resource Centres, getting invitations to speak at events and become panellists.
One of the biggest highlights for me personally was being awarded Emerging Leader of the Year at the Third Sector Awards 2021.
Although we are now back to our small team, the impact the VolConnect cohort had on Volunteer West, on myself and on CEO Thu-Trang, will stay with us for a long time.
What’s next for us?
We have several exciting projects happening in 2022.
Check out VolREACH here.
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