Help is on its way BlazeAid founder Kevin Butler on his sheep farm in Kilmore East. Photo: Simon O'Dwyer For the past 15 years, Rosalie Silverstein, 64, has spent more time at her shop in Glen Huntly than anywhere else. In contrast to the name, the Posh Opp Shoppe, she says, sells things that no one else wants, but are still much sought after. Last year the shop turned over $350,000, much the same as previous years, with all proceeds going to support 190 local children with physical or mental disabilities. Silverstein, who this year was awarded the Order of Australia medal for service to the community, admits she sometimes gives away clothes and furniture to people who are clearly destitute. Rosalie Silverstein at the Posh Opp Shoppe. It's a labour of love. If you make one smidgen of difference your life is worth living," she says. That's what she learnt from her mother, who worked as a volunteer for Jewish Care and Montefiore home for the aged for 70 of her 95 years. Silverstein began volunteering with her mother when she was still a child. Sundays, technically her day off, are filled with organising concerts, dance groups and outings for Montefiore residents, and her husband, Michael, "ends up going to the movies on his own." During the week, from 10am to 5pm, she runs the Posh Opp Shoppe along with 35 volunteers, but this year she's knocking off early twice a week to collect her grandchildren from school. I could never take a morning off ... there's always people in need queuing to get in. While there are not many Mrs Silversteins out there who have devoted their life to volunteering, it's definitely on the rise. According to the ABS there were 3.2 million volunteers in Australia in 1995 and and by 2010 that had increased to 6.4 million. Also, Melbourne University's Economic Value of Volunteering in Victoria report, released in December, says from 1992 to 2006 the economic value of volunteering increased by $1.6 billion to $4.9 billion. The national value is estimated at more than $14 billion, which could reach as much as $42.1 billion by 2021. Serlina Chu at the breakfast club for children who live at the Atherton Gardens housing estate in Fitzroy. Meanwhile, the latest ABS figures show of 1.5 million Victorian volunteers, 38 per cent do so full-time and 44 per cent part-time, of which 49 per cent are women. As the number of people choosing to volunteer changes, so does the type of person offering their services for free. Tony Nicholson, executive director of the Brotherhood of St Laurence for the past 10 years, says the traditional volunteers - stay-at-home mothers with schoolchildren - are being replaced by young men and women seeking work experience with a view to boosting their skills and job opportunities. Professionals in established careers are also now looking to contribute their skills through mentoring. He says the Brotherhood has about 1000 volunteers, with most running its 21 shops in Victoria, which have an annual turnover of $6 million. Programs in which professionals are involved include a refugee program for women needing guidance to run small businesses, another where refugees are matched with volunteers connected to a particular industry, and a breakfast and homework program for schoolchildren who live in public housing estates. Other programs target children at risk of leaving school early and facing a jobless future. Even the most disadvantaged people aspire to mainstream life - a job, home and family. They don't aspire to being an underclass," Nicholson says. Serlina Chu, 26, is one of 20 legal and non-legal employees at Melbourne law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, who are involved in the Brotherhood's breakfast program that she co-ordinates at the Atherton Gardens housing estate in Fitzroy. One of 38 legal firms that make up the not-for-profit organisation, PILCH, it provides breakfasts every Wednesday from 7.30am to 8.30am. Influenced by her parents' journey as migrants from Vietnam in the mid-1980s, she says she has always wanted to give something back to Australia. She is also a mentor, along with other Herbert Smith Freehills staff, at Hawthorn Secondary College. Chu usually works up to 11 hours a day at the company but says her volunteering gives her "a necessary balance between work, family and friends and a different perspective from my professional life." Volunteering is not restricted to raising money for charities. The Economic Value of volunteering in Victoria report puts the dollar value of sector-based volunteering at $1.3 billion for sport and physical recreation, $1 billion for education and training, $723 million for community and welfare, and $646 million for religious organisations. And it's the sports component of volunteering for which Sue Noble, the chief executive of Volunteering Victoria, wants more recognition. Volunteering by definition is about 'giving time'. Without community support sport just wouldn't happen," says Noble, formerly CEO of Softball Australia. As the head of the peak body that covers about 300 volunteer member organisations including Oxfam, Red Cross, Scouts and the CFA, she says when she began the job nine months ago there was a view that volunteering was facing a difficult future as the traditional type of volunteer became less available. Nicholson does have some concerns that as the population ages in the next 10 to 20 years, the number of people dependent on services that provide paid home help will increase as the amount of money to fund those services shrinks in line with a decrease with the number of people in the workforce. This will increase the need for more volunteers. But he's also optimistic that a large number of baby boomers on the cusp of retirement, with 15 to 20 years "up their sleeves have the capacity to apply their skills in the voluntary sector." "There are also young professionals in their late 20s and early 30s interested in doing specific projects, saying 'there has to be more to life than the one I'm living'," he says. Noble is confident the system is adapting to the different circumstances of contemporary volunteering. She is targeting the new demographic - the retired baby boomers, younger (and older) professionals needing more than a weekly salary - that Nicholson is targeting. It is a group of people, she says, that needs much more flexibility in how they volunteer, such as working irregular hours or being involved in one-off projects. We have a new volunteer market that views the world differently and has different wants and needs and we have to tap into what motivates them. They're the consumer, they have money, they travel and have other interests and we have to adapt the product to attract them," she says. Noble has just returned from a conference about disaster recovery and looking at ways to create a data base for fire and flood management. "The problems with volunteers on Black Saturday were not documented in either the media or by the government, which meant there were thousands of people who wanted to help but were untrained to do so," she says. The new generation of volunteers needs to register with their skills and be trained before a disaster occurs so they can be part of the solution, not the problem. Hazel Maynard, manager of volunteer development at St Vincent de Paul, says the 6500 volunteers working in its 102 shops across Victoria (which raise $29 million a year) are all recruited according to their skills and needs. Some 20 years ago volunteer recruitment comprised a homogenous group of housewives being told, 'Here's a pinny, love, what day would you like to start'? That group has now been replaced by younger people wanting work experience, as well as people from correctional institutions, others on community-based orders or with Centrelink requirements. "Volunteers' skills, experiences and personal needs have to be considered and matched to make our programs for the elderly, homeless, unemployed and other marginalised groups work best, " she says. With 45 per cent of volunteers working in country Victoria, compared with 32 per cent in Melbourne, Maynard spends much of her time in rural areas supporting volunteers. "I eat my own body weight in scones every year there are so many people to support, " she laughs. Two hundred kilometres east of Melbourne, 25 volunteers, aged in their late 40s to early 70s, are helping build fences in Heyfield that suffered severe bushfires in January. For the past three months, Lance Archie, 70, a former farmer from Mildura, has been at Heyfield with BlazeAid, a new organisation established following the Black Saturday fires in February 2009. He has been working seven days a week from 8.30am to 5pm rebuilding fences. "The group needs a sprinkle of professionals like me, who can teach the volunteers how to build the fences," he says. I love it, I can still be a farmer without the responsibility I once had. He says when he's finished at Heyfield he's heading to the Lockyer Valley in Queensland to clear debris from fences after flooding by cyclone Oswald in January. Kevin Butler, 58, a former teacher who runs a sheep farm in Kilmore East, is the force behind BlazeAid, which he started after the Black Saturday fires destroyed three kilometres of his fences. He put a $15 advertisement in the local paper asking for help, was overwhelmed by support and his farm was back on track in six days. Applying that model to fire- and flood-ravaged towns all over Australia, four years later BlazeAid has had 12,000 volunteers working an average of six days each - 72,000 working days - which amounts to $25 million of unpaid help. BlazeAid now has 10 base camps throughout Australia that are opened and closed as targets are met. Volunteers usually pitch tents or set up their caravans in grounds provided by the local community and are given three meals a day, also provided by volunteers. Anthony and Donna Coleman were among the worst affected by the Heyfield fires, with 90 per cent of their 400-hectare cattle property destroyed. Coleman says the four BlazeAid volunteers working on the farm most days motivate him "otherwise I'd tend to mope." After three months there's still another month before the farm can operate again. If it wasn't for the volunteers we'd never recover," he said. Louise Bellamy is a Melbourne journalist. National Volunteer Week is May 13-19.