Episode 5: Interview with Tracey O’Neill, Manager of Volunteer Engagement at Austin Health in Melbourne, Australia

Helping to create a positive culture of volunteering in many organisations can be tough work for leaders of volunteer engagement.  How do you ensure that volunteers feel valued by everyone, from the CEO and board down to the front-line staff? How do you have an impact on strengthening the value and impact of volunteerism when you, as a leader, already feel invisible or unheard?

Tracey O’Neill, Manager of Volunteer Engagement at Austin Health in Melbourne, Australia discusses the strategies she has employed to strengthen the culture and buy-in for volunteering across her large health service.  From the small-scale, easy things she did as a nervous newcomer, to the more bold and brave approaches she has harnessed in recent years as she has gained skills, knowledge, confidence, support and credibility.

Tracey is a passionate advocate for the strategic engagement of volunteers and for professionalizing volunteer management because she believes volunteers change the world, and sustainable effective volunteering happens when supported by skilled leaders of volunteer engagement. 

Listen to Tracey speak further on advocacy in volunteer leadership in this Volunteering Victoria webinar alongside volunteer engagement colleague, Ang Cuy, Active Executive Director Youth Services, YMCA Victoria and Volunteering Victoria Sector Development Manager, Sara Sterling, by registering here.  You can find links to other Volunteering Victoria webinars for leaders of volunteer engagement here.

Read Tracey’s blog, Volunteer Village, here.  Volunteer Village is a place for leaders of volunteer engagement across the globe to share our stories about the impact of volunteers, the vital nature of our roles and why our organisations, governments and communities should support and resource effective and transformative volunteer management.

Find Shawn Callahan and Mark Schenk’s podcast, Anecdotally Speaking, here, where they share business stories and talk about why it works and where you might tell it at work.  Get some great ideas for how you can grow your story bank.

Tracey can be contacted at [e-mail] or [e-mail], or at her LinkedIn page; https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracey-o-neill-cva-57447b20/