A very warm welcome to the second issue of CORRvolunteer.

The reaction to the first issue was very encouraging and I would like to thank those who took time out to provide feedback. This newsletter has helped to open a two-way dialogue between the Department and individual volunteers and I have been delighted that so many of you have been in touch to discuss important volunteering issues, offer your views and support, and share the many wonderful stories of life as a prison volunteer.

With this newsletter being easily accessible on the internet, I have been particularly pleased to receive a number of expressions of interest from prospective volunteers, including some from the other side of the world! This has enabled us to add to the exciting and increasingly diverse range of activities and services provided to prisoners by volunteers, including guitar lessons, creative writing, calligraphy, pottery, quiz nights, genealogy, meditation, pottery, bowling and much more. This is in addition to many church services and cultural support activities, including sycamore tree, alpha in prisons and kapahaka.

This high level of diversity is, I believe, a cause for celebration and I hope that we can continue to attract a varied body of volunteers able to offer a varied selection of activities and services. Achieving diversity will make the Department’s work, and that of our volunteers, more relevant and more accessible to a wider range of prisoners.

Being part of an organisation that values diversity gives you, our valued volunteers, the opportunity to benefit from new ideas and fresh approaches, generated by people from different backgrounds and experiences.

It is interesting to note that our 2,700 plus ‘approved’ volunteers are represented by a total of 443 different voluntary groups.

Indeed, ‘the diversity of volunteering’ was recently chosen as the focus of Volunteer Awareness Week, which took place 17-23 June 2007. The adoption of this theme helped to underline the message that volunteers come from all age groups and from all cultural and ethnic groups within New Zealand.

In this issue of CORRvolunteer, the diversity of our prison volunteers is well in evidence. Kelly Buckley, from Prison Fellowship of NZ, shares her experiences of delivering the Sycamore Tree programme; Carol Gorham from SPELD Hutt Valley talks about literacy training and Dulcinea Cooper of the Māori Evangelical Group in Auckland, reflects on a remarkable lifetime of volunteering.

Enjoy and keep in touch!

Russell Underwood
National Advisor: Volunteers

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