Tamworth volunteering drops as cost of living pressures bite

From cancer support to aged care, many of the region's most active support networks are finding it increasingly difficult to fulfil their services due to a lack of manpower.

"We're absolutely seeing changes in what has traditionally been the number of people we would have attracted to volunteering," Lifeline Community Engagement Coordinator Kimberley Squires said.

Lifeline is a crisis support charity, which is slated to build a major call centre in the Tamworth business park, but for now is still working to find enough supporters to staff its temporary office on Peel Street.

Ms Squires said while the community spirit in Tamworth has always been strong, the soaring cost of living has put a strain on many residents, leaving them without the time or resources required to commit to volunteer work.

"I have no doubt we will attract the crisis supporters we need to come to Tamworth, absolutely no doubt, but in the past we've been able to do it more easily," she said.

"We know there are a lot of people who simply don't have the capacity to be volunteering because of the current state of the economy ... we know that because we're also seeing an increase in the number of people calling the helpline in financial difficulty."

The shortage could have a major effect on the regional economy as volunteer work usually provides millions of dollars of value to Tamworth.

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Due to the dearth of volunteers, smaller organisations are being left with vacant leadership positions and no one to pass the torch to, leading some to cease operations entirely after decades of service.

"We've had good helpers, and the ones left will always turn up, but they just don't want to take a position and the ones that did have gone now," Tamworth branch President of cancer support charity Can Assist's Robyn Fitzgerald said.

But Ms Fitzgerald also says she knows people in the bush are made of strong stuff, and that the passionate workers at Tamworth's Can Assist branch won't break from the turbulent times we live in.

"Nothing will change, even if we don't get more volunteers. There's no way it'll close because it's taken too much to get it to this stage," she said.

Ms Fitzgerald said she's down to a skeleton crew of volunteers, but her crew are dedicated to help cancer patients at any time, day or night.

"If you're passionate about Can Assist, and you're there to help the patients, a patient can't help when they need to be helped," she said.

On top of making life more difficult for existing organisations, the shortage of volunteers is also making things difficult for new initiatives to get off the ground.

Oxley Community Transport's Nakita Somerville said only nine people have put their hands up for the company's new volunteer-led initiative to help aged care recipients connect with the community.

"Like many other places we do need more volunteers, we've got more care recipients than volunteers at the moment," Ms Somerville said.

Launched last month, the initiative works with the state's Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme to match volunteers with elderly members of the community in pairs to give the latter a chance to share their wisdom and stories.

"We're really looking for male volunteers, it's all been women so far," Ms Somerville said.

She said the transport service company is looking for more volunteers not just to pair up, but also to run their social media page or become a driver as the program grows and eventually scales up.

"We're hoping to eventually be able to use our Oxley cars to have little trips to cafes and things like that for the pairs," Ms Somerville said.

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