Volunteers Engagement Project

When you consider all the activities of the Queensland Police Service and then cross-reference how many have volunteer involvement, the result is quite staggering.

Earlier this year, Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson recognised the valuable contribution of volunteers to the Service and established the Volunteers Engagement Project (VEP).

VEP project manager, Inspector Tony Lake, said the project was developed to gain an understanding of the extent of volunteer involvement in the QPS and to manage that involvement in both the near and distant future. There are three levels of volunteer participation:

1. Direct involvement in QPS programs such as Volunteers in Policing;
2. Indirect involvement through QPS-related activities like NHW, PCYC and Crime Stoppers, and
3. Participation in external support organisations like Community Supporting Police and Safety House.

“When you look at the extent of volunteer participation across all of these activities and organisations, it’s an extensive project” said Inspector Lake. “By multiplying all these activities by the number of volunteers involved in each, and then applying that across the State, the extent and diversity of volunteer participation is quite significant.”

Over the next two years, research, analysis, discussion and consultation will be undertaken for the preparation of a report on the implementation of a volunteer management system to recruit, manage and recognise the efforts of volunteers.

Inspector Lake said the VEP would put the Service in a position to offer volunteers tasks that match their skills and abilities, as well as meet their volunteering needs or desires.

In the years to come, it is expected that more volunteers will become available as ‘baby boomers’, people born between 1946 and 1964, retire from the workforce and look for alternative ways to contribute to society.

The Service has recognised that this potential pool of willing participants will want to use the experience and talents they’ve developed throughout their working lives and so, the VEP will establish a way for the Service and its associated organisations to provide these people with the opportunities they’re looking for.