The experiences of volunteers in the provision of human services in NSW : a regional perspective

Whilst voluntary work has been identified by scholars as the most important factor in the accrual of social capital, there has been little attention paid to volunteering itself. An ARC SPIRT research grant enabled a combined research project between the University of Western Sydney, the Centre for Australian Community Organisations and management (CACOM) at UTS, the Council of Social Services of NSW (NCOSS), the NSW Premier's Office and the NSW Department of WomenÃ"šÃ‚¹. The project addresses issues of volunteering by identifying key experiences of women volunteers in South West Sydney and the Central Western Region of NSW. These two regions have a high level of need for welfare services but differ in their levels of volunteering and social capital. While the aims of the project are multiple, this paper focuses on a comparison of the rural and urban experience of volunteers. The discussion is necessarily preliminary, and reports the initial analysis of the first phase of data collection.