Published works

An inexorable link exists between volunteerism and community capability and resilience with respect to disaster risk. Communities and governments increasingly expect emergency management organisations (EMOs) to actively enable and enhance the value of volunteering for communities with respect to building community capability and resilience. This is strongly reflected in disaster management policy in Australia, embodied in the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience (COAG, 2011). It is also evident in the United Nation’s Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction that calls on Nations to encourage “Civil society, volunteers, organized voluntary work organizations and community based organizations to”, amongst other things, “advocate for resilient communities and an inclusive and all-of-society disaster risk management that strengthen synergies across groups.” (UNISDR, 2015, p.23)