volunteer at av
Do you want to contribute to empowering our Aspergers autistic community? Discover the joy and satisfaction of giving back to your community and making a real difference through a volunteer role with Aspergers Victoria!
AV is a peer-led organisation, and our team of volunteers are the heart of our organisation. Generous and passionate, AV volunteers are committed to supporting our community. They’re not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get dirty. They like to make a difference, create change, and support their peers - and they do!
We are always looking for enthusiastic and dedicated people with lived experience of Aspergers, autism, or another similar neurodivergent profile, to support our organisation through a volunteer role.
There are many different ways for you to get involved with AV and help create a better life for the Aspergers autistic community, and we will talk to you to match your skills and experience with the roles available. Or if you have a brand new idea for a group, program, or activity that you would like to volunteer to run, please get in contact - we'd love to talk to you about it!
Who can volunteer?
Aspergers Victoria is committed to diversity and to equal opportunity in our volunteer recruitment. Aspergers Victoria does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, colour, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, or marital status. This policy applies to hiring, training, opportunities for advancement, and terminations and applies to all Aspergers Victoria’s employees, volunteers, members, clients, and contractors.
We particularly encourage members of the Aspergers, autistic, and wider neurodivergent community to apply for our volunteer roles.
Benefits of being an AV Volunteer
Volunteering at Aspergers Victoria offers many benefits. Along with the experience of giving back to your community, you will be playing a vital role in the invaluable ongoing work AV does to provide opportunities for people with Aspergers, autistic people, and the wider neurodivergent community to connect, share stories and information, find meaningful employment opportunities, and most importantly, feel part of a community who just “gets” you. You will learn invaluable skills and have access to training and development opportunities, as well as plenty more volunteer benefits!
As an AV volunteer, you will have access to a range of opportunities and volunteer benefits, including:
- Joining the welcoming and inclusive AV team - as a small not-for-profit, our volunteers are invaluable and become part of our family
- Being part of a creative, dedicated, and neurodiverse team
- Access to training and professional development opportunities exclusive to AV volunteers
- Adding your role onto your CV and having the opportunity to request a professional reference
- The opportunity to shape AV, the groups, programs, and events we run, and the development of our organisation into the future
- Annual volunteer events to acknowledge, thank, and celebrate you as part of our volunteer team
- Bonus volunteer benefits: ask us about this to find out more!
How do I find out more?
If you are interested in finding out more about volunteering with AV, please complete our Volunteer Expression of Interest form. This online form will ask you for some information about your background, your skills, your experience, the reason you are interested in volunteering with AV, your basic contact details, and you will also have the opportunity to share anything else you would like us to know. When you have completed the form, please also email your CV to admin@aspergersvic.org.au. If you don't have one, that's completely fine - just let us know when you complete the Expression of Interest form.
If we have an available role that fits the skills and experience you have mentioned in your responses and in your CV, our admin team will contact you to set up a time for us to chat to you about what you're looking for and which role might best fit your skills and experience. The next steps will be to complete the volunteer paperwork and document checks. As part of this process, we will ask you for your current Working with Children Check, you will need to sign our Code of Conduct and Confidentiality Agreement, as well as complete any induction or required training. Our Board roles have additional requirements, including lived experience of Aspergers, autism, or another similar neurodivergent profile.
We also have some staff roles available from time to time. Please visit the Join the AV Staff Team page to check for any current vacancies.
Complete our volunteer expression of interest form
current volunteer roles available:
Board role/s: (require lived experience of Aspergers autism and time to contribute)
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Other AV volunteer rolesWe have listed more information about other volunteer roles we have at AV. You are welcome to contact us for more inforamtion about these roles, however the roles we are actively seeking to be filled are above, and it may take a little longer for our admin team to contact you about the roles below. |
Board Roles
We welcome those with a passion to drive change for our community, as well as suitable board, governance and/or strategy experience, to apply to join our Board, which meets monthly / every second month. Our board currently comprises volunteers with lived experience of Aspergers, autism, or other similar neurodivergent profiles in the roles of President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary and General Board Roles. In this role you are responsible for overseeing the legal requirements for governance of our organisation according to our Rules and legal requirements, as well as overseeing our vision and strategy.
Currently you will also have some operational deliverables as we transition our organisation to a more sustainable model with some funded support staff.
General volunteer roles
Advocacy
Are you interested in using your voice to advocate for the Aspergers, autistic, and wider neurodivergent community? We would love to hear from you if you have skills or interest in learning about writing government submissions, speaking on advisory panels, and general advocacy roles. This role requires a few hours each month.
Programs
We have some exciting projects that we're working on and we would love some additional support from volunteers.
Do you have any of these skills?
- Experience in the workplace as a person with Aspergers, an autistic person, or a person with another similar neurodivergent profile, in the role of employee, employer, or support person
- Experience in coaching or interest in training as a coach
- Experience in networking with employers, businesses and organisations to advocate and provide training about the benefits of neurodivergence in the workplace
Communications
We would love some assistance in managing and coordinating our communications, including newsletter content, social media and/or PR. This role requires a few hours per month. We have plenty of material available. We also welcome blog posts and articles contributed from our members.
Fundraising
Do you have experience making funding pitches, writing grants or managing funding projects? We would love more support to secure ongoing funding including donations, philanthropy and preparing and writing grants.
Groups
Do you have experience facilitating groups or providing support to a group facilitator, or would you like to learn more about this? Our Peer Group Leader or Group Assistant roles might suit your skills. We're always looking for Peer Group Leaders and Peer Group Assistants as support for our existing volunteers or to add more groups and cover more areas. This role requires a few hours once each month, depending on the group.
Info Help Team
We need volunteers to join our Info Help team roster to respond to questions, enquiries, and requests for help from our community. This role requires a few hours one week each month on a rotating roster. For this email response service, our volunteers must have excellent written communication in English as well as a strong sense of empathy and respect for confidentiality.
Membership
To support our growing membership base, we need someone with strong IT skills, a knack for creative problem solving, and excellent written English skills. If this sounds like you, we'd love to hear from you! This role requires several hours each month.
Programs
We have some exciting projects that we're working on and we would love some additional support from volunteers.
Do you have any of these skills?
- Experience in the workplace as a person with Aspergers, an autistic person, or a person with another similar neurodivergent profile, in the role of employee, employer, or support person
- Experience in coaching or interest in training as a coach
- Experience in networking with employers, businesses and organisations to advocate and provide training about the benefits of neurodivergence in the workplace
Sub-committees
We have various advisory committees you can join to contribute to our community and we are always looking for input and insight in these from our community.
Business development committee: this committee organises our funding and our events across the year.
Governance & finance committee: this committee oversees governance including budget planning, risk management and project outcomes measurement and evaluation.
Technology
If you have skills with computers, we'd love to hear from you! We need help updating and managing our website and database, as well as finding ways to improve our tech support. This role requires a few hours each month.
Complete our Volunteer Expression of Interest form
If you have any questions, please email our AV admin team: admin@aspergersvic.org.au
AV is committed to meeting Volunteering Australia’s National Standards for Involving Volunteers and we are a signatory of the Statement of Principles for the Recognition of Volunteers.
 | We rely on donations and memberships to provide specialised support, advocate for change and fill the gap in the specific services our community needs. |
