Make a positive difference
Volunteers play an integral role in supporting and enhancing the services Uniting AgeWell provides.
Become a volunteer today
Ready to make new friends, improve your own wellbeing and the lives of others?
Volunteers contribute to the wellbeing of clients in many ways, through a dozens of volunteering opportunities including:
- Transporting clients
- Contributing to events and activities
- Gardening
- Entertainment
- Supporting lifestyle activities
- Office administration
- Home visits.
For information about becoming a Uniting AgeWell volunteer, contact (03) 13 93 75.
Become a volunteer todayWhat is involved?
Volunteering with Uniting AgeWell is tailored to you. No prior volunteering experience is necessary.
The amount of time you contribute is entirely up to you. It might be once a week, once a month or once a year on a special project.
Uniting AgeWell provides training and on-going management support to all volunteers, and coverage for Personal Accident, Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance.
Recognising our volunteers
Uniting AgeWell volunteer Ruth Hosking, was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) honour this year for nearly four decades of service to the local community.
The Bendigo 89-year-old gets huge joy from volunteering at Uniting AgeWell Strath-Haven Community in Bendigo where she meets with families and individuals who are considering admission into residential care, listens to their concerns and ensures the answers she gives meet their needs.
And even over the last two years, with Victoria in and out of lockdown during COVID, Ruth has simply carried on her volunteering work at Strath-Haven – chatting to people over zoom and the phone and emailing them important information in fact sheets, which she has developed from a range of resources.
A spotlight on volunteering
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Abhi Wijesinghe
Volunteer
Counselling student Abhi Wijesinghe is delighted to be learning first-hand what textbooks simply cannot teach.
The third-year student at the Australian College of Applied Professions, volunteers twice a week at the Social Connections program at the AgeWell Centre in Forest Hill where she spends time with older clients with dementia.
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Antonia Dingery-Attard
Volunteer
Antonia Dingey-Attard is certainly talking the talk when it comes to spending time with older people in the community – in five different languages!
The 65-year-old Point Cook resident has been volunteering with Uniting AgeWell for over a year now, both in the Chata-Ring program where she has regular one-on-one phone calls with older customers, as well as one-on-one social visits to their homes or to take them out shopping or for coffee.
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Hugh du Toit
Volunteer
Hugh du Toit has a heart as big as his smile.
He recently started volunteering with Uniting AgeWell at Chadstone’s St Marks Centre where he’s happy to roll up his sleeves and do gardening as well as people attending the Social Connections program.
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Geoffrey Willis
Volunteer
Volunteer Geoffrey Willis has been playing the organ for church services at Uniting AgeWell Strathdon Community for an incredible 57 years.
The 82-year-old was a member of the Vermont Uniting Church and started playing the organ during church services when Strathdon Community first started.
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Christiane Mamotte
Volunteer
Meet Christiane Mamotte, who can pretty much turn her hand to anything when it comes to volunteering with older people.
Her foray into volunteering started in 2016 when she was retrenched from her job working in a bridal salon. She turned a negative into a positive and decided to investigate volunteering.
Stan Roberts’ world has evolved around his wife, Dorothy for the last 28 years they have been married.
So, in the way that carers deeply understand, he felt heart-broken but also hugely relieved when she moved into Uniting AgeWell Kalkee Community Nangatta towards the end of 2021 after her dementia worsened.
As well as visiting Dorothy, he’s taken up volunteering there two days a week: helping staff during busy meal times and being involved with activities for residents. He even brings along his saxophone, and performs old favourites for everyone.
Cassie Wallace can recall the defining moment that changed the course of her life.
After 18 months as an unemployed university graduate, Cassie decided to and start volunteering. And when a volunteer admin position at Uniting AgeWell came up, she jumped at the opportunity.
Her value was soon recognised and she was offered a permanent role. Fast-forward eight years and Cassie, who leads a team which is a critical component of the engine room of Uniting AgeWell, has received a highly-prestigious organisation-wide Excellence Award.
Every day I volunteer at Kingsville Community is different.
Some days I spend one-on-one time with a resident as a friend, going to the coffee shop or out for a walk in the garden. I also help the staff from the lifestyle team with activities and outings, or help the hairdresser at the on-site salon with whatever she needs. Volunteering is the most rewarding work I’ve ever had. When you do something and you see a resident smile as a result of it, that’s more rewarding than any money.
- Lou Bonnici, Uniting AgeWell Volunteer
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Get in touch
We'd love to hear from you. Fill out the form and we'll be in touch soon!
Phone: 1300 783 435
Email: [email protected] -
Locations
We have offices across metropolitan and regional Victoria and Tasmania.
Find your local office