Surf Life Saving NSW - Ensuring Your Community is Welcoming, Safe, and Diverse

Our guest today is Mike Anderson, Community Education Project Officer with Surf Life Saving New South Wales. Mike is part of a team that wants everyone in our broader community to feel not only safe on the beach, but that they belong there. From those who live on the coast to those who have never even seen the ocean, Surf Life Saving is attempting to build relationships that engage all kinds of communities. 

Surf lifesaving is engrained into Australian culture and is an ‘iconic’ part of the Australian outdoor lifestyle. More than anything, Surf Life Saving Australia is an example of community building on a large scale. 

While there are already over 150,000 members across more than 300 local clubs, Surf Life Saving is always looking to expand its membership. With the aim of promoting the beach as a shared space for everyone, Surf Life Saving is in the process of trying to be more inclusive and accessible to different communities regardless of their location or background.  

If community is the car, then volunteering is the fuel. Volunteers keep communities running - whether it’s a school working bee, putting your hand up to coach the basketball team, or even fighting bushfires.  
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that over 30 percent of Aussies volunteer with not-for-profit organisations. They worked out that in 2014 alone, over 743 million hours of volunteering had been contributed to communities. And that doesn’t even include all that informal volunteering we do in our everyday lives - like helping out a neighbour or caring for loved ones.  

So a great way to check the pulse of your community is to look at just how much time and energy people are willing to put into it - even when it’s 5am and the ocean is freezing! But most importantly like Mike says, it is vital that you look after your volunteers, because they can’t help fuelling someone else’s car if their own tank is empty!