{"id":6410,"date":"2020-05-06T12:10:20","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T12:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=6410"},"modified":"2020-05-06T12:10:20","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T12:10:20","slug":"new-volunteering-platform-to-support-vulnerable-amid-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/06\/new-volunteering-platform-to-support-vulnerable-amid-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NEW VOLUNTEERING PLATFORM TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE AMID COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteers are being empowered to provide welfare checks, deliver supplies and offer essential transport to vulnerable people through a new online platform linking community members with charities, NGOs and councils in need of support.<br \/>\nMinister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward encouraged volunteers and organisations to register on the new Emergency Support Volunteering website to help support people impacted by COVID-19.<br \/>\n\u201cIn times of crisis, we rally around each other and do everything we can to support those who are struggling. We saw it during the bushfire emergency and we are seeing it again now,\u201d Mr Ward said.<br \/>\n\u201cThe pandemic is placing a significant strain on volunteer-driven organisations who support vulnerable members of our community, and many require more people to help meet demand.<br \/>\n\u201cThis platform allows you to register your details online and an organisation in your local area will get in touch and offer volunteering opportunities when they arise.\u201d<br \/>\nThe NSW Government has partnered with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.volunteering.com.au\/#\/\">Centre for Volunteering<\/a>\u00a0to develop the platform which is also operating in Victoria and Western Australia.<br \/>\nCentre for Volunteering CEO Gemma Rygate said the platform prioritises the safety and wellbeing of participants and is designed to offer informal voluntary opportunities that consider physical distancing restrictions.<br \/>\n\u201cThere are many ways you can safely volunteer during the current pandemic, including by making welfare check phone calls from the comfort of your home, or by delivering groceries to those unable to do their own shopping,\u201d Ms Rygate said.<br \/>\n\u201cThis new platform is a link for spontaneous volunteers and organisations, and has capacity to be used beyond COVID-19 as a means of connecting willing participants with organisations in need of support during an emergency.\u201d<br \/>\nFor more information, and to register, visit\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/emergency.volunteer.org.au\/\">https:\/\/emergency.volunteer.org.au\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteers are being empowered to provide welfare checks, deliver supplies and offer essential transport to vulnerable people through a new online platform linking community members with charities, NGOs and councils in need of support. Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward encouraged volunteers and organisations to register on the new Emergency Support Volunteering &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/06\/new-volunteering-platform-to-support-vulnerable-amid-covid-19\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NEW VOLUNTEERING PLATFORM TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE AMID COVID-19&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}