The MVRG recognises that the not-for-profit landscape has been changing and presenting us with many challenges over recent years.

The MVRG’s Strategic Plan is an attempt to reinvigorate and re-energise community groups and volunteering across our shire. It is directly responding to our own community surveys, findings from our “Changing Face Of Volunteering” Forum as well as current statewide and national initiatives.

The plan also reflects a desire to reduce the level of isolation and loneliness which is reaching unprecedented levels across the globe. The recent National Volunteer Strategy points us to where we need to change if we are to recruit and retain volunteers in our contemporary world.

We clearly need to:

• be more flexible in meeting volunteers’ expectations
• make the volunteer experience easier and more rewarding
• provide more focused training opportunities · promote project based volunteering
• help out with onerous paperwork and red tape constraints
• ensure the volunteer experiences we are offering match the interests of potential volunteers- especially younger cohorts
• find ways to engage lonely and isolated residents in community participation

Most importantly, we understand the importance of not-for-profit groups in a healthy, thriving community and we place this at the centre of our work – take away volunteering and you take away the very fibre of community!

The MVRG believes that it is our trusted local community leaders who are best equipped to steer us towards a more vibrant NFP sector.

As we begin a transition away from a shire where community groups have been operating as silos, often competing with each other for community funding, we are hearing loud and clear that our NFPs want to collaborate, to work together and support each other.

Our recent forums and planning sessions have been extremely well attended and we see a high level of excitement, enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate in the future.