Wow! We have had an influx of people wanting to volunteer at the Neighbourhood Centre in the past month.  

Why are they wanting to volunteer? There are a whole heap of reasons, but often the volunteer wants to give back to the community - they have retired from full time employment and have time on their hands.

Other newcomers to our community wish to volunteer to meet people make new friends and get to know the town. We also have seasonal volunteers, volunteers who come to Port Douglas for the winter, and wish to help the community they call their second home.  

Some of these volunteers return to the Neighbourhood Centre and NicNak shed year after year. These volunteers come from down south, but also from New Zealand and from England. In the past year we have had two young Americans on holidays volunteering here.

We truly are an international volunteer organisation.

When I ask Barb from New Zealand why she comes back every year to work in the NicNak Shed, she responds ”It's  a way of meeting the locals and getting to know people, and whats going on in the area. I get a lot of pleasure working here, I am a bit of a Doris and like to know whats happening.”

Trevor and Daphne come up every year from Harvey Bay. For the last three years they have assisted with the float decorations and organisations for Carnivale and were very involved in our mural project. They keep coming back to help at the Neighbourhood Centre because “We meet friendly happy people.”

What can you volunteer to do at the Neighbourhood Centre?

We are totally dependant on volunteers to ensure the smooth running of the centre. We are managed solely by a volunteer management committee who have the responsibility of being employers and business managers.

Our NicNak Shed, apart from the coordinator, is staff by volunteer salespeople. All the staff you meet at reception at the Neighbourhood Centre are volunteers - their job is to meet and greet you, and direct you to where you want to go. They also answer the phone, assist people with Centrelink, and do administration work for the paid staff.

Most of them have very important tasks as well, one volunteer compiles all our statistics, another looks after all the brochures, another looks after all membership and blue card enquiries and renewals.

We also have volunteers who assist in the facilitation of our groups, we have volunteers who give up their time to help facilitate the playgroups and new parents groups here, we have volunteer art teachers and craft tutors, and we have volunteers who run health and wellbeing groups.

Recently, a volunteer ran a women’s health and wellbeing group for our staff, Vicki is also a seasonal volunteer.
 
And the list goes on; We have volunteers who tutor Seniors in computer skills, and another volunteer is in the process of starting up a computer club for community members.

We have volunteers who look after our gardens, volunteers who make cakes and food for fundraising events, volunteers who organise fundraising events, volunteers who assist the paid staff in their office work, including typing filing etc.

Our latest venture is the Tuesday Lunch and Friendship Group. This is where a small group of skilled and dedicated volunteers prepare and cook lunch for a group of up to thirty or forty community members.

Other volunteers decorate the tables and assist with the serving of the meal and the cleaning up.

This group is open to anyone from the community, and its aim is to break down some of the social isolation experienced by some people.

We invite prospective volunteers to attend this lunch as it gives them an idea of the way the centre runs and the philosophy of the centre, and also gives them an opportunity to meet staff and other volunteers.   
 
We always welcome new prospective volunteers as the seasonal volunteers return home every year and we are left with a bit of a gap. We hope by having a fairly large pool of volunteers we can always have someone available when volunteers are on holiday or unwell.

So if you have some time to spare or some skills to share, give us a ring on 4099 5518.