Newsletter 6 - Out of uniform

Newsletter 6 - August 2016

Changes to research team and end-user group

The last few months have seen some major changes in the Out of uniform project. Josh Whittaker recently left us to take on a new role at the University of Wollongong – see his farewell below. He will remain involved in the project and will be presenting on his case study of volunteering in community-led recovery at the Research Forum of AFAC16 at the end of the month. He has been a key member of the research team from the start of the project and a valued colleague at RMIT's Centre for Risk and Community Safety, and we are sad to see him depart. We wish him all the very best in his new role.

While Josh leaves big shoes to fill, we are very pleased to have found a new team member who is up for the challenge. Tarn Kruger is a former PhD student of the Bushfire CRC, with an ongoing interest in volunteering and considerable experience in both government and research spheres. Tarn will be particularly involved in the upcoming SWOT workshops to develop an engagement strategy decision support framework.

We have also had a second significant departure with our cluster lead-end user, with Rob Dugdale (CFA), moving on to a role outside the emergency services. Rob has been a thoughtful and approachable supporter of the project and his contribution will be missed. His replacement at CFA will be stepping into the lead end-user role once on board.

In other end-user movements, Ron Weston has joined us from the ACT Emergency Service Agency while Sam Colwell has departed, moving on to another role at NSW SES. 

Farewell from Josh

“To all end-users and researchers associated with the Out of uniform project, I would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for your interest in and support of the project for the past three years. It has been great working with you all! I am leaving RMIT to take a position with the Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires at the University of Wollongong. I will continue my involvement in the project, albeit on a smaller scale. I look forward to seeing many of you at the CRC and AFAC conference in August/September."

Progress update

The last few months have been a bit quieter for the project, with people movements and periods of leave occurring. Despite this, they have also been a few months of high engagement within research, emergency services and community networks. Members of the research team presented on case studies at three conferences, with Josh presenting at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting in San Francisco, and the Emergency Media and Public Affairs Conference in Melbourne, while Blythe presented at the National Volunteering Conference in Canberra. Blythe also presented to the AFAC Volunteer Management Technical Group meeting in April and participated by invitation in the Dandenong Ranges & Yarra Valley Community Led Emergency Planning Forum in April. She also participated in a working group to develop an Outcomes Framework to assess spontaneous volunteer services in Victoria, led by Volunteering Victoria.

A key event on our calendar also took place in May, being the CRC Research Advisory Forum held in Hobart. Josh and Blythe presented on the project to the broader CRC community, and we had a small but active group of end users in attendance to help develop and refine ideas around research utilisation (see below).

When back in the office, we have also been working away at progressing the remaining case studies, and preparing a draft briefing paper to propose an initial strategic engagement framework ahead of the SWOT workshops scheduled for October. 

Utilisation road map 

Developing a utilisation road map for the project was a key focus of discussions at the May RAF. The road map uses the CRC’s framework to lay out steps towards key utilisation outcomes arising from the project. A draft road map has been submitted to the CRC for two key utilisation product groups:

1.       A suite of communication products targeted to information needs of specific audiences to assist in filling people’s knowledge gaps in this area

2.       Engagement strategy decision support framework

Note that some of the activities and outputs proposed extend beyond the current term and scope of the project.

There is a lot of scope for end-users to shape both of these product groups as they unfold, in the first case through providing feedback on specific information needs and best communication formats, and in the second by supporting and participating in the upcoming SWOT workshops. You can expect to hear from us in the coming months to seek your input on both utilisation mapping and product development. 

End-user perspective – departing statement from Rob Dugdale, CFA 

“This research continues to make a valuable contribution to the CRC and the researchers have emerged as respected subject matter experts within Australian volunteer sector. The project has not only helped the emergency management sector to better understand the changing nature of volunteerism, but has helped to define and build awareness of potential alternative models of volunteering to cater for the ever-changing nature of the volunteer life cycle. Researchers have successfully contributed to academic papers, national conferences and have worked with grass roots movements to help influence change and drive innovation across the sector.

"Over the course of recent months, the focus of the work has become about better understanding the needs of end-users so that an approach to utilisation can be determined. The challenge for the months ahead will be to take the advice and direction of end-users and develop tools and resources that will assist agencies to better comprehend the issues facing volunteer workforces. There is also an opportunity for researchers to lead the sector in the development of initiatives that support agencies to approach addressing the risks associated with antiquated workforce models in order to maintain workforce numbers and support the contemporary volunteer.

"End-users are very supportive of the approach being taken by the researchers and the communication they maintain with the end-user group. At the Recent Research Advisory Forum in Hobart, end-users acknowledged the RMIT team’s outstanding achievements within their field.”

PhD student reports

Billy Haworth - ‘Volunteered Geographic Information, Community Engagement and Bushfire Preparation in Tasmania’

Recently I completed the last of my PhD fieldwork and am now focused on writing thesis chapters. In 2015 I interviewed emergency management professionals from across the country about how public communication and mapping practices through various technologies (termed “volunteered geographic information” – VGI) are impacting emergency management. A paper has recently been published based on insights from the interviews, describing key opportunities and challenges of VGI in emergency management, and ways forward to ensure the most effective use of VGI (see project outputs list). I also completed a student placement with Peter Middleton and the Bushfire-Ready Neighbourhoods team at Tasmania Fire Service in March. Read all about that in my blog. I have further conference presentations planned for later this year and am working towards submitting my PhD thesis in August.

Fiona Jennings – ‘Community volunteering and disaster recovery; a study of community resilience in the 2013 Forcett Bushfire, Tasmania’.

My research aims to explain community-led recovery, from the perspectives and experience of those impacted by a natural disaster. This understanding will assist in refining approaches that are more inclusive of community participation in the domains of disaster response.

I carried out two field trips to Tasmania in August and October 2015, and conducted 27 interviews. The 40 people interviewed were all involved in the 2013 Forcett Tasmania bushfire disaster, and ranged from community members, to volunteers, as well as representatives of local and state government and non-government services. Most recently, my work has involved progressing the data analysis phase of the research, data coding, memo writing and theory building.

(Fiona also had a major milestone in her PhD progress on 3rd August – her mid candidature review which involves submitting a significant piece of written work and presenting on her research to a review panel.) 

CRC and AFAC annual conference, August/September 2016

There are four presentations associated with the project at the AFAC16 conference, as well as numerous posters. We hope to see some familiar faces at our sessions.

Research Forum, Tuesday 30 August, Stream 2, volunteering session:

• 1pm: Billy Haworth - “Using participatory mapping to harness local knowledge and increase community connectedness in bushfire preparation”
• 1:30pm: Josh Whittaker – “Opportunities and challenges of citizen-led recovery in post-disaster settings”
•  2pm: Blythe McLennan – “Harnessing the capacities of spontaneous volunteers: application and adaptation of the Queensland model”

Wednesday 1st Sept, Stream 4:

• 10:05: Julie Molloy – “Managing offers of assistance and the power of asking – critical messaging before, during and after disaster events”

Latest outputs 

• McLennan, B, Whittaker, J, & Handmer, JW (In Press). The changing landscape of disaster volunteering: Opportunities, responses and gaps in Australia. Natural Hazards.
• McLennan, B, Molloy, J, Whittaker, J, Handmer, JW. Centralised coordination of spontaneous emergency volunteers: the EV CREW model. Australian Journal of Emergency Management 2016; 31: 24-30.
• Haworth, B. Emergency management perspectives onvolunteered geographic information: Opportunities, challenges and change. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 2016; 57: 189-198.
• Whittaker J, McLennan, B, Handmer J. Community On Ground Assistance, Kinglake: a study. 2016, Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC: Melbourne, Australia.
• McLennan, B. Extending into community-ledpreparedness and planning just enough (but not too much?). Australian Journal of Emergency Management 2016; 31: 5-6.
• Handmer, J. Emergency service volunteering inAustralia. HazNet 2016, 8(1): 32-35.