Handbook 12 Communities Responding to Disasters: Planning for Spontaneous Volunteers is now online, following a comprehensive development process. 

This handbook draws on and complements current and ongoing activity in spontaneous volunteer management, and builds on the capability and knowledge of organisations and individuals across the disaster resilience sector in Australia and internationally.

Specifically, the new handbook builds directly upon the national Spontaneous Volunteer Strategy endorsed by the Australia-New Zealand Emergency Management Committee on 2 October 2015. The handbook supports the strategy by providing general guidance to organisations on ways to incorporate its principles into their plans and activities. 

The handbook also facilitates linkages between the Spontaneous Volunteer Strategy and the Spontaneous Volunteer Management Resource Kit, developed in 2010 by the Australian Red Cross for the former Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA).