Volunteer shortage forces SA charities to rationalise services

It is the season of giving, but some charities and organisations in South Australia are struggling to provide all their services due to a lack of volunteers.

The CEO of St Vincent de Paul Society in South Australia, David Wark, said it was a challenging time of year.

"We're desperate for volunteers in our shops," Mr Wark said.

He said a lot of the Vinnies shops, which provide affordable items to those who need it most, simply did not have people to run them.

"It's certainly a challenge over the Christmas period and the early part of the new year in being able to keep our shops open then," he said.

"The volunteers we have are fantastic, but just the number of them can't sustain the shops during that period.

"A lot of the shops just have to close because we don't have enough people to provide the service through them."

Mr Wark said the shops helped many who were struggling financially.

"The shops provide a few different things for Vinnies and the community," he said.

"First of all they provide the opportunity for people to get cheap product [for those who] have no choice other than to shop at Vinnies and that's one of the most important reasons for them.

"The other is to provide us with the opportunity to generate a dollar or two for the services we provide."

He said Vinnies was fortunate to have more than 2,800 volunteers in South Australia, but a lot of their time was used to sort and distribute toys and food that have been donated for disadvantaged households during Christmas.

Less popular volunteer jobs forgotten

Volunteering SA&NT CEO Evelyn O'Loughlin said although there was often a spike in the number of people wishing to help out with Christmas appeals, there were still many sectors, including the less popular vocations, that get forgotten.

"Some organisations in rural and regional areas do have difficulties finding people and it can cause problems when organisations need to either share volunteers or look at their own practices to see if they can recruit new people," she said.

"Sadly some organisations need to look at whether they have a long-term future as well."

Ms O'Loughlin said essential services often struggled to attract a high number of volunteers.

"If people are interested in looking at the roles that are less popular, that is really great for our community, and our organisations that need to provide some of those services that are essential like supporting aged care, supporting hospitals, supporting disability services," Ms O'Loughlin said.

"The areas where there are really quite good numbers tend to be in the sports or the arts and festivals, things where people are really keen and get quite short-term opportunities and there's always a lot of people who are interested in those.

"What comes to mind often are the more traditional roles but there are some really fantastic roles out there."

Ms O'Loughlin said those who might be thinking of giving their time have much to gain.

"Giving of yourself is just such a wonderful thing and there are so many health benefits as well," she said.

"So people volunteer for lots of different reasons, whether it's to give back to community, whether it's to learn new skills, whether it's to impart their knowledge, improve their English or get job experience.

"It's great fun, you get to meet new people you learn new skills you give of yourself and it's just a wonderful opportunity."

Ms O'Loughlin said her organisation has 25,000 volunteer roles on its database at any one time.