Applications Are Open!
Are you passionate about social change? Help make activism smarter and stronger by volunteering with the Commons Social Change Library. You’ll help put skills and knowledge in the hands of people working on all sorts of social and environmental issues.
As a Commons Library volunteer you will become familiar with hundreds of educational resources. You’ll deepen your knowledge about many approaches to social change including campaigning, organising, digital tools, communications and media, creative actions, working in groups, wellbeing and much more.
To apply for the Commons Library Volunteer Program please submit your application through the online form.
Volunteer Roles
- Event reporters – Attend conferences and other events, write articles, interview presenters
- Accessibility assistants – Undertake EasyRead translation of Commons resources, write alternative text for images, help with transcription
- Website maintainers – Fix broken links and update categorisation for a good user experience of our site
- Writers – Contribute articles based on your own interests and experience, interview people, write book reviews
- Curators – Develop topic overviews which help people work through Commons resources
- Social media influencers – Share Commons resources through your networks, design engaging content, build our presence on different platforms
We welcome your involvement in these roles – and other ideas you’d like to suggest!
Support and Training
The Commons Library is committed to making social movements smarter and stronger and that includes our volunteers! Volunteers have access to:
- An orientation session to help you understand the Commons Library and your options as a volunteer.
- Online training sessions. Check out our 2022 Skills Sessions.
- One-to-one meetings to check in on your projects and provide guidance.
- Slack channel for updates and sharing ideas.
- Attendance at Australian Progress events to learn, network, and gather resources.
- Accessibility volunteers will have access to EasyRead training delivered by the Council for Intellectual Disability.
Testimonials
I’ve always used the Commons as an activist and volunteering feels like a great way to give back. I’ve learnt so much since starting as a volunteer: working on community mapping, writing an article for the website, and working on a social media strategy, not to mention the regular training sessions Holly and the team run for volunteers. I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of the team. – Sophie Hartley
I began volunteering to leverage my experience in curating resources to support their valuable community service. Since then, the volunteer program has provided training and ongoing support that has helped me build new skills. Along the way, my capacity to volunteer has fluctuated and yet I have always felt like a valued part of the team and remain highly motivated to contribute. – ET Smith
I greatly appreciate having found somewhere that I can use my librarian skills to support social change. Whenever I mention the Commons Library to friends who are interested in making the world a better place, they either have already heard of it and find it invaluable, or they are so excited to hear that it exists because they know how much it will assist them in their activism. – Relle Graefe
The Details
We encourage volunteers to contribute 2-5 hours per week, to be completed on times and days that suit the volunteer’s availability. Volunteering can be very flexible to accommodate other commitments and time pressures like caring, work, study, and health issues. We are open to volunteers engaging with us for short defined projects or an ongoing basis.
We also welcome ideas for shared projects with other organisations. This means if you have an existing connection to an organisation, network or community you could produce resources of benefit to that organisation/network/community with support from the Commons Library. Examples of outcomes from this kind of collaboration include: campaign case studies; interviews with campaigners; articles on social change skills and strategy shaped to your particular audience; recordings from events; and materials to support training.
The Commons is an equal opportunity employer. We aim to overcome barriers to access including those related to ability, education levels, language, income, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and any other oppression or systemic disadvantage. Different ages, experience levels and working styles are welcome. We welcome your different talents and what you can contribute.
We especially invite participation from First Nations people, people of colour, people with lived experience seeking asylum, and people with disability.
Please note that our volunteer program is currently only open to people living in Australia. We encourage people from around Australia to volunteer. The Commons is a digital library and volunteering will take place remotely.
To be considered in our 2023 intake please apply before 30 January. We will contact potential volunteers in the week starting 30 January and run an orientation session in February.
Apply Now
To apply for the Commons Library Volunteer Program please submit your application through the online form.
Further information
Find out more about the Commons Library:
- Commons Annual Report 2021/22
- Subscribe to the newsletter and view the newsletter archive
- Browse the topics and collections
For accessibility enquiries or any further information please contact the Commons Librarians.