The Emergency Management Sustainable Volunteering Blueprint (The Blueprint) was initiated by the AFAC
Volunteering Management Technical Group (VMTG) and funded by Natural Hazards Research Australia
(NHRA). Its aim is to provide the foundation for the strategic infrastructure to support implementation of
actions across the EM sector to progress the sustainable volunteering agenda.
The Blueprint is comprised of living documents that can be adapted to changing circumstances and needs.
It identifies an initial set of solutions and evidence-based projects that can be supported by action-based
research. It links three core components – a theoretical evidence base, strategy, and practice to support and
enable effective national outcomes.
The high level of risk that EM volunteers work with places them in a different category to other volunteers.
This, and the inclusion of Australia and New Zealand, differentiates The Blueprint from the National Strategy
for Volunteering 2023‒2033 (Volunteering Australia, 2023). Although the focus of The Blueprint is volunteers
within the SES and Fire Services in Australia and New Zealand SES and Fire Services, it also considers the
broader volunteering ecosystem that interacts with these agencies and their communities before, during, and after incidents. This provides a summary of the blueprint and key findings