Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This morning I attended the share-the-love-for-volunteer-support-services event hosted by Volunteering Australia. In attendance was my electorate's local volunteer support service, Volunteering WA. I have a special place in my heart for volunteers. Having worked in community services for much of my life and also having set up my own not-for-profit organisation in 2013, I know firsthand the amazing and wonderful work that volunteers do, often under very trying circumstances.

In Cowan, my electorate is home to hundreds of incredibly hardworking volunteers and volunteer organisations from all walks of life, providing essential services in a whole range of areas. One of them in particular that I would like to mention today is the one set up by Dee Clayden. Dee is a constituent in Cowan as well as an experienced early childhood teacher and mother of three. She established Ashdale Special Families in 2015 with two other local families after her daughter was diagnosed with autism.

Ashdale Special Families is a support and friendship group for families with special children. They meet fortnightly at the Pearsall Hocking Community Centre. They aim to provide a support network for families of children with special needs and an opportunity for these families to come together in a supportive environment to share skills, parent networking and experience. It is a wholly volunteer program, and without the work of their very precious and very valuable volunteer facilitators the group would not be able to do what it does. Volunteers do not only consist of the direct families themselves but also grandparents and, of course, other family members in Cowan.

Another volunteer organisation I would like to make special mention of is Youth Futures, which has also been working in the Cowan electorate and across Perth since 1988 to provide homelessness, education and support programs to young people. It provides professional services that increase communication participation and enhance wellbeing for young people, particularly young people at risk.

As I said earlier, I have a very special place in my heart for volunteers and the vital work that they do. I would call on both sides of parliament to take a bipartisan approach to valuing volunteers and acknowledging the value that they make to our society. Volunteering Australia has found that the economic, social and cultural value of volunteering to WA is greater than $39 billion dollars. For every one dollar invested in volunteering, $4.50 in benefits are returned to the community. Indeed, I recognise their value, and I am sure other members here also do. (Time expired)