b'COMMUNITY| LEGAL SECTOR| 2021SUSTAINABILITY INSIGHTNON LEGAL VOLUNTEERING Introduction According to the most recent State of Volunteering in Australia report, volunteers comprised an average of fifty-seven percent of total staff in volunteer based organisations and contribute an estimated 743 million hours to the Australian community. Volunteers work increases the amount of social services provided while bringing new insights and skills that increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their delivery. At Work The Corporate Citizenship and Volunteering Australia 2019 snapshot found that prior to the pandemic 78 percent of companies had a volunteering program in place and over half of them had intention of growing these programs.Fifteen percent of employees participated in these programs contributing an average of 27.5 hours per year.The most recent Giving Australia Report also found that business volunteering in the workplace was increasing, with almost three-quarters of large businesses allocating paid time for volunteering (ninety percent of these increasing resources to volunteering over the last ten years). Half of all corporations managing a formal program sought to integrate workplace volunteering through more in-depth community partnerships. More recent research from Volunteering Australia and the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods shows that voluntary work has been impacted harder by the COVID-19 recession than paid work. Many of the lockdown and social distancing restrictions had eased across Australia by April 2021. However, many of those who had previously volunteered but had stopped doing so due to COVID-19 had not returned to volunteering:2.3 million less fewer Australians volunteered in April 2021 than in late 2019 (a drop from 36 per cent participation to 24 percent) Annual volunteering has dropped by 293 million hours since COVID. The loss in economic output due to the pandemic would be 16.1 per cent higher if volunteering was included rather that paid work only.All gender and age groups showed a decline in volunteering however there was a slightly larger declines for females and the 45 to 54 year old age group.The survey showed that volunteers had a higher level of life satisfaction prior to COVID-19 than non-volunteers. The impact of COVID-19 on life satisfaction and loneliness varied by volunteering behaviour over the period, with those who managed to continue volunteering during COVID-19 faring much better.Australians who had stopped volunteering since 2019 had a greater loss of life satisfaction than those who continued to volunteer during COVID-19. Loss in life satisfaction appears to have occurred between April and October 2020.Those who stopped volunteering were far more likely to say that they felt lonely at least some of the time than those who continued volunteering.VOLUNTEERING COORDINATION INITIATIVESGeneral Community VolunteeringSkilled volunteeringSecondments to NGOsHost or lead external sportingdays or eventsStudent tutoring and mentoringBlood donationsPaid volunteer timefor employeesCharity events and appealsBoards0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Perecentage of firmsYes 78% No 9% Not Reported 9% Average number of initiatives per firm: 4Currently in Development 3%52'