Fact Sheets
The Office for Volunteers produces a range of fact sheets covering topics relevant to individual volunteers and volunteer involving organisations.
Each fact sheet aims to give the reader a broad overview of a particular topic in addition to providing a range of avenues to find further detailed information.

Risk Management Tool Kits
All community organisations should have effective risk management policies and practices in place to either prevent, or at least reduce levels of risk. Proper risk management will reduce the impact of problems when they occur.

Mandatory Reporting

The legal requirement to report suspected cases of child abuse and neglect is known as mandatory reporting. All jurisdictions possess mandatory reporting requirements of some description. However, the people mandated to report and the abuse types for which it is mandatory to report vary across Australian states and territories.

Police Checks

Police checks are sometimes included as part of the recruitment process. The South Australian Government meets the cost of police checks for volunteers who work with 'vulnerable groups' such as children, the aged and frail, or people with a disability.
Download a Free Police Checks for Volunteers fact sheet (PDF 315KB) developed by the Office for Volunteers here

Manager-of-Volunteers Portal

The Volunteering Australia doorway to the information you need to build your knowledge base, extend your networks and stay in touch with the issues impacting the sector as they emerge.

Volunteering Australia Resources
We know that as a manager of volunteers your time is scarce and resources even more so. To support you in your pursuit of excellence, Volunteering Australia has developed and sourced free tools and materials you can use on the job.

Australasian Association of Volunteer Administrators (AAVA) Resources

Good human resource practice for volunteer programs from AAVA

Volunteering Australia Best Practice Tips and Advice

Simple, easy to understand tips and advice from Volunteering Australia for involving volunteers.

Insurance Protection for Volunteers

The paper discusses many of the issues that volunteers face with regard to insurance including risk, liability and legislation.  

Voluntary work in Australia contributes an estimated 713 million hours to the community, which is worth approximately $42 billion per year to the economy. Volunteering delivers a number of key social and economic benefits to a community and increases a community's resilience and capacity to respond to a disaster.
However, the large number of people who come forward to offer their time and skills when there is a disaster can be overwhelming and place an administrative burden on organisations at critical times and this has highlighted the importance of managing spontaneous volunteers for states and territories, as well as volunteer and emergency management organisations.
The Spontaneous volunteer management resource kit was developed in support of a project, overseen by the Australian Red Cross and funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, to develop a framework for managing spontaneous volunteers in an emergency. The core principle for the effective management of spontaneous volunteers is that those affected by a disaster are the first priority. The kit offers a range of resources to help support jurisdictions, municipalities and organisations to manage potential spontaneous volunteers during emergencies.
The resource kit includes:
  project report
  draft framework
  draft communication strategy
  draft implementation plan
  research report into the motivations and expectations of spontaneous volunteers
  CD with: 

• literature reviews on spontaneous volunteering and emergent organisations
• management tools, including video case studies on volunteering in an emergency
• generic forms for use in an emergency and suggestions for briefing and debriefing volunteers

Click for the Resource Kit.