Volunteer South is the volunteer centre for the Dunedin, Waitaki, Clutha, Central Otago, Queenstown Lakes and Invercargill areas.

It has been a very busy period for the teams at Volunteering Central and Volunteering Otago. Not only have they had to work through the impacts of a global pandemic and the increased welfare needs of their respective communities, but they have re-branded and formalised a significant merger coming together under the one umbrella of Volunteer South.

Volunteer South promotes, supports and strengthens volunteering, creating stronger more connected communities.

This is a very exciting development for the volunteer sector in Otago which has been almost a year in the making. It is great to hear that a Waitaki role is also in the pipeline, extending the teams reach into North Otago.The team will also be expanding into Invercargill at the same time as Waitaki.

The Volunteer South team will shortly be launching a new and improved connections software giving volunteers and organisations a smoother more user friendly experience - watch this space Otago!

On the back of National Volunteer Week, we have heard some incredible stories on the importance of volunteering and what it means to give back and contribute to the community. If you are thinking of volunteering more in the future, we would encourage you to check out with Volunteer South website to learn more about what they have on offer and how you might be able to help now or in the future.

Volunteer South - Otago - https://volunteersouth.org.nz/

Podcast - Place of Volunteering in 2020

In this podcast (here: https://bit.ly/NVWonOAR) Alan Shanks for Volunteer South spoke with city councillors Carmen Houlahan and Andrew Whiley about the place of volunteering in our community in 2020.