It’s been a year and a half since the OÖNachrichten together with the voluntary rescue and safety organizations in the country (such as the Red Cross, the Workers’ Samaritan Association, the voluntary fire department). “Volunteer manifesto” have developed (see box below). A lot has already happened.
Most recently, Governor Thomas Stelzer (VP) announced that the state of Upper Austria would develop a comprehensive volunteer strategy.
Walter Aichinger, President of the Upper Austrian Red Cross and current chairman of the Volunteer Council, into which the emergency organizations have come together according to the Volunteer Manifesto, expressly welcomes this. At the recent meeting of the Volunteer Council, Aichinger positively emphasized that there was also the opportunity to get involved in this volunteer strategy.
The organizations in the volunteer council – Red Cross, Workers’ Samaritan Association, volunteer fire department, mountain rescue, water rescue, cave rescue and civil protection association – have one priority: the so-called “Voluntary structural support”. This involves public sector support for full-time employees in voluntary organizations who take care of recruiting, supporting and retaining volunteers in the regions.
“If there is a fire in Austria or if there is a crash, we are there”, said the volunteer council. In order for this to continue to be the case in the future and to find enough volunteers, professional, full-time support and support for volunteers is needed.
“This can’t be done casually”
“In a company with 1,000 employees, a human resources department is a given – but with 1,000 volunteers it is taken for granted that someone does it on the side”said Wolfgang Steiner from the Workers’ Samaritan Association. “But it doesn’t work that way.”
Markus Voglhuber from the volunteer fire department pointed out that the emergency organizations also have a legal mandate, which distinguishes them from other voluntary organizations in the cultural or sports sectors.
There is currently not a single full-time employee in mountain rescue or water rescue (as in other, smaller emergency organizations). “Some people are not even aware that all of our services are provided by volunteers”says Martin Eberl from the water rescue service. Being operational also involves a lot of responsibility, liability issues, further training and background work.
It would therefore be important and desirable for the country to do this “comparatively small sum” for voluntary structural support, “to ensure voluntariness”said Voglhuber. “Otherwise we risk that in the future we will no longer have the number of volunteers we currently have. And to repair it you would need a lot of money.” (mst/vega)
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Source: Nachrichten
