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The 2019-20 Australian bushfires (‘Black Summer’) caused a spike in volunteer inquiries. The devastating impact the bushfires had on the environment, animal populations, and the homes and livelihood of many Australians prompted considerable interest in volunteering for emergency services. Absent large-scale disasters, attracting and retaining volunteers are major challenges for emergency volunteer brigades, groups, and units (BGUs). However, the aftermath of the 2019-20 bushfires left volunteer leaders and managers with little guidance as to how they can properly onboard, support, lead, and manage the sudden influx of new volunteers and ensure that they are prepared for future bushfire seasons. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic that followed the bushfires shortly after left an increased appetite for online learning as face-to-face training was sometimes not possible.

Following the work of the Enabling Sustainable Emergency Volunteering project, as well as through research conducted with the Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES), the Supporting New Volunteers: A Resource Kit for Emergency Service Volunteer Leaders was proposed and created with the intention of providing both volunteers and staff members within emergency services organisations the guidance and tools to better support volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and leadership. These are research-based resources designed to complement and reinforce existing training and support available within emergency service organisations.

There are three modules available within the resource kit:

• Module 1: Recruiting - to support the effective planning, promotion and selection of new volunteers
• Module 2: Onboarding - to support new volunteers with registration, induction, support, training and engagement
• Module 3: Leading - to guide volunteer management and improve leadership skills, such as the sharing of responsibilities, providing feedback, recognising achievements and dealing with conflict

These modules contain resources that drew from real-life volunteer case studies and the available research evidence. The training information includes short (2-4 minute) training videos, volunteer interviews, ‘tip sheets’, checklists, case studies, thinking exercises, reflection exercises, and editable templates.

It is hoped that these accessible and practical resources will empower and support volunteer leaders and emergency service staff members in their mission to attract, support, manage, and retain current and future volunteers in BGUs.