This week is National Volunteer Week – Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering (May 20-26). The theme for this year’s Volunteer Week celebration is “something for everyone” - a chance to celebrate the changes that our volunteers can make in children and young people’s lives, and also to assist families and foster and kinship carers.

Department of Child Protection volunteers help with various tasks, including driving children to access visits with family members, and to school or medical appointments. They also help with homework support, assisting children at special events such as those organised for National Reconciliation Week and Youth Week, and helping them with their Life Story (scrap book of memories) work.

There are about 180 people volunteering with the department. The youngest volunteers are in their 20s, and the oldest in their 80s, with the volunteer force collectively pitching in more than 31,000 hours a year.

In this segment, we hear from Anne Marie Scanlon, Department for Child Protection North Region Director and has worked at DCP for more than 20 years, having started at the department as a volunteer. Volunteer Judith Crawford who has been volunteering with the Department for Child Protection for about 12 months. She drives children to and from day care and school, and to appointments or visits with family members. Volunteer Bert Dirix who has been volunteering with the Department for Child Protection for more than nine years, helping children get to school, appointments, camps and family contact. He started volunteering with DCP after he retired and was looking for a way to give back.