EnviroMatters Magazine Spr-Sum 2024-25

Environment Matters | 9

Warm welcome builds volunteer diversity In many cultures where giving Maranda Buchanan

‘Our organisation is more reflective now of what our community looks like, and our rich culture. We take on that responsibility to make sure we illustrate that. ‘Then it also breaks down the barriers between us and the community – if we can get more volunteers who reflect our community diversity, we can better help.’ Maranda, a ‘big believer in doing something that feels right’ has found her ‘something’ at Goodna SES Group. She has been involved in major operations for our city and State, including the Halloween hailstorm, search for PD Quiz, 2022 floods and her first deployment for Cyclone Jasper. ‘My nanna always said we should always help those who are around us, because you never know when it could be an angel in disguise. And SES hit that spot,’ she said.

service is ‘just something you do’, the traditional concept of volunteering can be seen as a barrier. Goodna SES Group volunteer Maranda Buchanan, a Pasifika woman, has been able to cross that invisible boundary and combine her cultural foundations of faith, family and service to others with a long-term involvement in the SES ‘orange army’. For Maranda, fostering an inclusive environment starts with recruitment processes that establish the SES ‘orange family’ as welcoming and accepting of cultural diversity. ‘At inductions when we talk about breaking down those barriers, you feel the sense of community build. If we are up front about it right from the beginning, it demonstrates we mean it, and it becomes a shared responsibility to build that culture within the group,’ she said.

The Orange Army

Images courtesy of Queensland Fire and Emergency Services

Did you know?... in the 2021 Census, almost a sixth of Ipswich’s households spoke a language other than English with the most frequent being Samoan, Punjabi, Vietnamese, Malayalam and Hindi. Did you know?... the Ipswich Disaster Dashboard 5 DECEMBER IS INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEER DAY

can be translated into more than 100 languages. Additional resources are available in other languages at Ipswich.qld.gov.au/emergency

BECOME AN SES VOLUNTEER