Northland volunteering: Cost-of-living pressures make recruitment difficult

Volunteering Northland community connections co-ordinator Verena Pschorn and manager Bev Giles. Photo / Brodie Stone

Rising living costs are making it harder for some Northland organisations to recruit and retain volunteers, community groups say.

Non-profit Volunteering Northland says finding volunteers has become an obstacle in recent years.

“People get into that headspace where they can’t even think about doing something to help someone else because they’re in that survival mode,” manager Bev Giles said.

The organisation connects groups with volunteers and provides networking opportunities, support and professional development.

Giles predicted a “crisis” if volunteers could no longer contribute.

“I think a lot of people wouldn’t imagine that someone that just saved their life was a volunteer as well.”

Community connections co-ordinator Verena Pschorn said volunteering had become “more of a luxury” and people were questioning whether they could help at all.

“It just takes that joy and that community spirit totally out because you have to consider surviving.”

The national volunteer and foster manager for the SPCA, Viv Moore, said living costs meant people had to “carefully consider” their finances.

“We have heard from many volunteers across the country that the ongoing cost-of-living pressures are having a significant impact on their ability to volunteer.”

Some had reduced volunteer hours or taken paid work to make ends meet, she said.

The challenge came amid increased demand for animal de-sexing and rehoming, and with kitten season looming, the SPCA needed extra hands.

Kitten season is expected to bring another surge in demand for the SPCA, where volunteer numbers are thin thanks to the cost of living. Photo / NZME

North Haven Hospice chief executive Helen Blaxland also cited volunteer recruitment as a “significant challenge” in the past three years.

Volunteers were generally retired and in their early 70s, but others included beneficiaries unable to find paid employment.

Volunteering was a “catch-22” for those who lacked disposable income, she said.

Some stopped volunteering when fuel prices spiked in March, and others could help only once a week despite wanting to commit more.

Some parents’ capacity to volunteer had been reduced because they were taking a more active role in childcare as working parents tried to save costs.

North Haven Hospice chief executive Helen Blaxland says hospices work hard all year to raise millions of dollars.

More nurses and healthcare assistants had been called into the inpatient unit to fill gaps, reducing income, Blaxland explained.

“Our expenses are going up as a result.”

Patient support had taken a hit too, with twice-weekly biography services now occurring once a month.

Good Bitches Baking Whangārei chapter lead Kristin Rewha-Langdon said it was becoming difficult to fill the baking roster as volunteer numbers dipped.

The charity provided baked goods for people in need across the region.

Though living costs were tight, Rewha-Langdon also pointed to winter illness, holidays and funerals as reasons for lower volunteer numbers.

“I think for me, like some of it is life, it doesn’t get in the way, but life happens to us volunteers as well, and then that impacts on those that we are wanting to serve.”

In the past 12 months, the chapter delivered 995 boxes.

Volunteers are needed to extend the outreach of Good Bitches Baking.

“People are just so grateful, and I suppose when you think about it, if your ordinary diet’s simple, to have a box of homemade baking is just a treasure,” Rewha-Langdon said.

Some volunteers were baking more often to help fill gaps.

The Hato Hone St John district operations manager for Te Tai Tokerau, Ben Lockie, said recruiting and retaining ambulance volunteers had become “increasingly challenging” in recent years for a range of reasons.

The pressure was greatest in rural and remote communities, where people commonly volunteered for more than one organisation.

Lockie said economic and demographic changes were also factors.

“Many people are working longer hours or remaining in employment later in life, while younger people often move away for work or study.”

Ben Lockie of Hato Hone St John says recruiting and retaining ambulance volunteers has become “increasingly challenging” in recent years.

Increasing levels of violence and aggression made attracting and retaining volunteers difficult, he said.

Coastguard said finding volunteers depended on the size of the town they were drawing from and whether people were already volunteers.

The cost of living had not been cited as a trigger for a change in numbers, a spokesperson said.

“Where volunteers do leave a unit, time constraints tend to be the main reason we hear.”

Units including Houhora, Whangaruru and Whangaroa were seeking volunteers.

Others, like the new Mangawhai unit, had a strong membership.

Brodie Stone covers crime and emergency for the Northern Advocate. She has spent most of her life in Whangārei and is passionate about delving into issues that matter to Northlanders and beyond.