Held just once every two years, the NSW Palliative Care Volunteer Managers Conference is a vital opportunity for leaders across the sector to connect, network, and engage in professional development.

Because no one understands the nuances of your role better than your peers, this conference offers ample space to share ideas, learn from one another, and solve common challenges. Our program is designed to inspire and inform, with topics tailored to support managers at all stages of their careers.

We invite all leaders of palliative care volunteers, even those from outside NSW, to join us for two days of growth, learning, and camaraderie.

Our conference is being held concurrently with the Palliative Care NSW State Conference in Sydney. Program information will be posted on the NSW State Conference website here when finalised.

To register, please contact us.

Are you aware of your legal responsibilities when it comes to volunteer management? The Institute of Community Directors is hosting a free webinar to ensure you are up-to-date with all the latest requirements.

This training is designed for board and committee members, senior staff, and leaders of not-for-profit and community organisations who are involved in governance, management, or strategic decision-making.

At this webinar you will learn how to:

• determine who is a volunteer and when this can become legally unclear
• onboard volunteers (e.g. due diligence, documentation and training)
• manage volunteers (e.g. managing complaints by and against volunteers; meeting safety obligations)
• end the volunteer relationship (e.g. tips for when the arrangement isn’t working out).

This 1-hour webinar will be held live and free on Wednesday 4 March, from 1:00PM to 2:00PM AEDT.

For more information and how to register please click here.

The Institute of Community Directors website has tools, resources, and all types of governance training available for community and not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises. Membership is free. Click here to find out more.

We invite volunteers, volunteer managers, and anyone else interested in palliative care volunteering to come together for the 2025 Palliative Care Volunteer Conference. Registrations are now open.

Our conference theme ‘Being Human‘ allows us to explore the profound, shared humanity at the heart of palliative care volunteering. We come together as peers to celebrate this with listening, presence, and authentic connection.

The organising committee have put together a fabulous line up of workshops and speakers. We trust you will connect with the content and come away having made new friends from other services.

The volunteer conference is being held in Sydney on August 18 & 19. Day one has four workshops to choose from and day two is filled with plenary presentations.

For all the information about the conference including program and registration, please click here to go to the conference website.

PCNSW is hosting our annual Professional Education Day as part of National Palliative Care Week in May. If you are a PCNSW member, you can attend this event for free. It will be held at the lovely Norths Cammeray where lunch and afternoon tea will be provided.

There will be some wonderful speakers and topics discussed, Trauma Informed Palliative Care, The Role of Community Pharmacists in Palliative Care, and Palliative Dementia Care. We will also be providing sector updates from Aged Care and Volunteering throughout the day.

James MacDonald is scheduled to speak and present the findings from his current research project Tracking the post-COVID recovery of Palliative Care Volunteers Services in NSW. James recently joined us as an intern from Macquarie University and has been an invaluable asset for our organisation as well as for the Volunteer Support Services Programme.

PCNSW Professional Education Day details:

• Date: Friday 24th May 2024
• Time: 9:30am-3:30pm. Lunch and afternoon tea included
• Venue: Norths (12 Abbott Street, Cammeray NSW 2062)
• FREE for PCNSW members or $75 (+ GST + Booking fees) for Non PCNSW members

Please check out presenters and register for the event HERE.

Not a PCNSW member yet? Become a member by clicking here and attend our Professional Education Day for free plus your membership will be valid until 30th June 2025.

Since the start of 2023, Volunteering Australia have been working towards building better volunteering infrastructure via a sector-wide consultation process. As part of this process they have delivered a National Strategy for Volunteering and updated The National Standards for Volunteer Involvement.

The National Standards provide a framework for contemporary best practice volunteer management and engagement on the ground. They are a tool for volunteer managers and leaders to ensure volunteering is safe, effective, and inclusive. You can access the updated standards HERE.

The National Strategy is future-oriented and provides an ecosystem level vision and plan for the next ten years, with goals and actions that can be considered and adopted by organisations and groups.

Currently they are calling for interested stakeholders to contribute their ideas and perspective towards the first Three-Year Action Plan. The Three-Year Action Plan will provide clarity and direction for the volunteering ecosystem as they work together to realise the vision of the National Strategy for Volunteering: to make volunteering the heart of Australian communities.

Interested parties are invited to join an online workshop and have their views heard.

Click below on the date you would like to attend and you will be directed to the booking page.

The next workshops will be held on:

Wednesday 6 March

1pm-3pm

Friday 8 March

1pm-3pm

 

Come along to the 30th Annual Friends of Palliative Care Walk & Fun Run.

Friends of Palliative Care (FOPC) is a charity that solely relies on kind donations from local businesses and community members through their yearly fun run.

All money raised on the day helps individuals and families in Palliative Care & End of Life Care in the Hunter Valley, from supporting individuals through chemist account payments and hiring out hospital beds and equipment, all costs involved with this are completely covered by FOPC.

When? Sunday 10th March 2024

Where? Maitland Regional Athletics Centre

Register HERE

The gates will open  at 7:00am, with the first event of the day being the 10km fun run at 7:30am, followed by the 5km fun run beginning at 8:15am and then the 5km family friendly walk to remember to those who have gone and to show support to those currently in palliative or end-of-life care.
The morning will conclude with the drawing of the raffle and a remembrance ceremony.

Event tickets will be available on the day, however to avoid queuing it is suggested you pre purchase. Raffle tickets and FOPC merchandise will also be available to purchase on the day. Both Cash and Eftpos will be accepted.

The Hunter Homes coffee van will be there, The Rotary Club of Rutherford Telarah will be there cooking up a storm and Muay Fit will be there to pump us all up before the walk.

Friends of Palliative Care hopes to see many smiling faces there on the day!

Palliative Care NSW and the NSW Network of Managers of Palliative Care Volunteers are pleased to bring you the NSW Palliative Care Volunteer Conference 2023. This year the theme is “The Power of Perspective”.

The conference will be held at the RSL ANZAC Village, Narrabeen, with big thanks to RSL LifeCare who have generously provided us the venue. It is via this generosity that we have been able to keep the cost of registration low and we hope this will encourage volunteers from all over NSW to attend.

Our organising committee have been working hard to bring you an exciting lineup of guest speakers including the 2023 NSW Senior Australian of the Year, Teresa Plane. Teresa has spent the last 40 years advocating for palliative care and is a resident of ANZAC Village.

The dates for the conference are Monday 23 & Tuesday 24 October 2023. On the Monday afternoon there will be four workshops to choose from. Tuesday is the main conference day with plenaries, presentations, and activities.

Monday workshop registration cost is $50. Tuesday full day conference registration cost is $100.

Palliative Care NSW and the Network of Managers of Palliative Care Volunteers can offer a limited number of people from regional and rural NSW subsidised (free) accommodation on Monday 23 October. We hope this will go some way toward alleviating the financial burden associated with traveling long distances to attend. If this subsidy would help you attend, please contact your Volunteer Manager as soon as possible to express your interest.

The conference website is still under construction and will be available soon at http://pcvolunteerconference2023.com.au. The website will be the repository of all information including program and registration.

Registration will open in early July. Watch our website and social media for updates.

 

Registration is now open for the 2023 Volunteering NSW State Conference which will be held in Sydney on  Thursday 8th of June. Volunteering NSW is the peak body for volunteering.

The Volunteering NSW State Conference is the primary forum in NSW that examines the importance of volunteering and its positive impact on society. 

The Conference has been developed for Professional Leaders in Volunteer Involving Organisations in the not-for-profit and community sectors, bringing together experts, academics and industry leaders to allow delegates the opportunity to advance their knowledge, develop skills and grow their network. 

This year’s Conference is focussing on the theme Volunteering in an Age of Disruption with the sub themes:  

• Leadership and Stewardship of Volunteering 
• Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion 
• Valuing and Repositioning Volunteering

The Conference will explore how to best manage the significant challenges we face in this era of unprecedented natural and human centred disruption, to build knowledge, leadership and best practice in the volunteering sector. 

Guests include Leigh Sales AM, Daniel Murray, Christine Anu, and Louise Geoghegan.

Click here for more information.

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is Australia’s largest annual celebration of volunteering and will be held this year on 15 – 21 May with the theme The Change Makers.

The work of volunteers is vital for a community or sector to thrive, they are indeed the change makers.

The event recognises the support that the millions of volunteers in Australia provide to their communities and encourages people to consider volunteering.

National Volunteer Week 2023 is a celebration of their power to drive change and ensure volunteering is inclusive of all members of the Australian community.

Volunteering Australia has a bunch of free resources to help you promote National Volunteer Week 2023 including personalisable certificates of appreciation for your volunteers, logos, e-cards, certificates, invitations, posters, social media images, email and web banners, and printable selfie frames.

Please click here to get involved or for more information about the event.

The Parkes Palliative Care Volunteer Service and Palliative Care NSW would like to welcome participants to join with them under the Umbrella of Palliative Care.

The day provides an opportunity to reflect on the important work volunteers and health professionals do, and on how to maintain perspective in their work. Being with clients on the End-of-Life Journey and aiming to provide social support means giving of ourselves.

Self-reflection is required to continue to support and care. The day will be interactive and engage volunteers and health professionals in practical activities that promote reflection and growth in their role. We will explore the challenges that lead to compassion fatigue and how to move from this fatigue and vicarious trauma to strengthen and grow.

Volunteers and health professionals will have an opportunity to develop actions for a self-care plan and practice self-compassion. This will clarify where they stand under the Umbrella of Palliative Care and how to get the best support and shelter.

• 

  Comfort Inn Bushmans, 9-13 Peak Hill Rd, Parkes

• 

  May 2, 2023

• 

  8:30 AM – 4:00 PM

Program

8:30am	Registration and tea/coffee.
9:00am	Welcome and introduction.
	Welcome to Country.
9:15am	Carly Fisher
	Finding our flow: How unlocking our unique strengths can propel us forward with energy and optimism.
10:30am	Morning Tea
10:55am	Beaté Steller
	What is your ‘cost of caring’? How can we manage this level of cost?  How to manage vicarious trauma and bereavement to focus on self-care.
1:00pm	Lunch
2:00pm	Beaté Steller
	Sharing stories of bouncing back.  Self-compassion and its benefit to our clients and others. Standing Under the Umbrella – Closing ritual – commitment to self-care.
4:00pm	Seminar concludes

 

Presenters

Beaté Steller has a background in, along with graduate and post graduate qualifications in, Social Work, Adult Education, Nursing and Spiritual Care. She has worked for over 35 years as a Social Worker, Counsellor, and Spiritual Wellbeing Coordinator, and has been the Principal Consultant of her Training Development Consultancy for over 20 years. She has specialised in End-of-Life related care and aged care and is passionate about making this part of the life cycle as dignified as possible. Beaté is the author of Tech Connect-Staying Meaningfully Connected in Aged Care. Her master’s research in Ageing and Pastoral Studies was on Mindfulness Meditation Groups in Residential Aged Care and its Relevance to Spiritual Growth and Wellbeing. www.beatesteller.com

Carly Fisher is Registered Psychologist and Business Consultant with 20 years’ experience in therapy, organisational consulting, and high-performance coaching with organisations such as Defence, Foreign Affairs and Health, as well as individuals. Carly has a master’s degree in business and was trained out of Weber State University in the US in Critical Incident Trauma Debriefing. Having worked with thousands of frontline and first responders in resilience, trauma and scientific psychological intervention, Carly is most passionate about rural health, strategy and the science and mostly, driving positive outcomes in our work and our lives by showing up as our best, most authentic self when it matters most. www.carlyfisherconsulting.com.au

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER