Volunteer Handbook

The Conduct & Responsibilities section sets out, in detail, how you can expect to be treated as a volunteer as well as expected standards of conduct for all Arise volunteers.

Arise is committed to upholding ethical and professional standards of conduct. We will continually aim to provide a safe and positive environment for all volunteers. Our church relies on each volunteer's: generosity of time, honesty, integrity, ethical behaviour and good judgment to ensure that we continue to fulfil the great commission and follow God’s greatest commandment.

As a volunteer, your actions have the potential to be interpreted as representative of the entire Arise community and in some cases the legal liability for your actions may fall upon Arise. For this reason, this section of the Volunteer Handbook aims to clearly define the conduct and responsibilities expected of volunteers. These guidelines are designed to safeguard both the volunteer and the Arise community as a whole.

This section also includes guidance on a volunteer’s responsibility to the various stakeholders within the Arise community. It provides guidance on behaviours that volunteers should exercise wisdom and discernment around, and defines the behaviours Arise volunteers are expected to avoid. Volunteers can expect no tolerance for non-biblical behavior including abuse, illegal drug use, criminal activities and drunkenness. Failure to uphold the expected conduct and responsibilities may result in the engagement of disciplinary processes.

For the full Conduct & Responsibilities section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

We want to equip and support every volunteer. Our commitment is to develop onboarding processes to ensure all volunteer team members receive a relevant level of training and induction. The level and complexity of training will vary depending on your role.

For the full Joining the team section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Arise Church’s physical resources come from the generous and sacrificial giving of our church community. Arise is committed to stewarding these resources that they may produce a return for the kingdom of God. Volunteers are expected to take care with all church resources and assets in an effort to avoid unnecessary costs from repair or replacement.

For the full Stewardship section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Arise has obligations as a PCBU under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2016. These obligations include ensuring that there are reasonable practices and processes in place to safeguard all people within church environments and initiatives.

All volunteers should be aware of Health and Safety standards and should feel under no compulsion to carry out a volunteer role if they feel unsafe to do so.

As a volunteer you should take reasonable care to keep yourself and others healthy and safe, avoiding anything that could potentially put others at risk.

Incidents - If you become aware of a hazard, an accident or other incident please promptly notify an Arise staff member or volunteer team leader. Volunteers are able to directly notify the Health, Safety and Wellbeing team by reporting the incident at management.arisechurch.com or emailing hsw@arisechurch.com

Wellbeing - In the interest of personal wellbeing the maximum an individual should serve in a volunteer capacity at Arise is 16-20 hours per week, depending on their role. Roles should not exceed 12 hours in a single day. Heavy or specialised equipment should not be operated when a volunteer has exceeded 8 hours. Any hours over this require sign off. While you are on a volunteer team for extended time periods you can expect to take breaks and you should expect to have a clear understanding of the hours that you are committing to prior to accepting a role or rostered position.

For the full Health, Safety and Wellbeing section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Arise is committed to safeguarding the personal information of our church community and complying with the principles of the Privacy Act 2020. As a volunteer you may have access to personal information. All volunteers are expected to comply with Arise’s processes for handling information and are expected to treat any information with confidentiality and care.

Arise’s Privacy Policy can be found online at www.arisechurch.com/privacy

For the full Privacy section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Arise is committed to providing a clear, consistent and fair complaint and dispute resolution process. This includes clear avenues for providing feedback and raising matters of concern.

There are several reasons that you may wish to raise a concern or make a complaint. If you decide to engage in this process you can expect to be treated with fairness, respect and receive clear communication and confidentiality.

We hope to see restoration and reconciliation as an outcome of this process. Therefore, as much as possible we aim work towards restoration of situations and relationships to the satisfaction of all parties.

We encourage people to seek a personal resolution initially through private conversation. If a resolution cannot be reached there are both informal and formal complaints processes that volunteers can engage.

Bullying and harassment are two subjects that Arise takes especially seriously and there are particular provisions made in our processes that attempt to protect volunteers and enable clear processes for safely raising concerns or complaints concerning bullying or harassment.

Feedback and complaints, including different avenues for raising matters of concern can be found on our Feedback and Complaints page on our website. www.arisechurch.com/feedback

For the full Raising concerns and making complaints section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Arise is committed to transparency and accountability in line with our legal responsibilities. This section outlines the process and protection of whistleblowers who disclose suspected wrongdoing. In the first instance, volunteers are encouraged to raise their concerns with their campus pastor or follow Arise’s complaints process.

If a satisfactory response or resolution is not received, volunteers are able to report the issue directly to the relevant regulatory body or authority. This process is governed by the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022.

For the full Whistleblowers section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

Disciplinary procedures have been established that aim to achieve clear and consistent results. This section includes straightforward explanations of unacceptable actions or behaviours that would result in a volunteer facing disciplinary action.

These procedures will guide any investigation and potential response to a breach of standard, conflict and/or disagreement involving a volunteer. We will endeavor to restore relationships and to ensure that the perspectives of all parties involved are heard. A volunteer involved in disciplinary procedure can expect to be listened to, treated impartially and offered support and/or independent mediation.

For the full Disciplinary procedure section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

The Terms and Conditions section includes releases and information around photography and videography within our environments. It also includes a talent release, clarifies the non-renumerated nature of being a volunteer and encourages informed consent particularly for younger volunteer team members.

During services and events, Arise team members often take photographs and capture video footage of various aspects, including shots where individuals and groups are identifiable. As a volunteer you may also choose to be filmed, photographed, or recorded for a specific project or purpose. As such, your likeness may be used in church services, social media, advertising, and marketing material.

Volunteering also includes the voluntary contribution of ‘talent’ and/or ‘intellectual property’ such as playing an instrument, singing, content creation, photography or videography, or other types of live performance, and includes the recording and distribution of that performance. This includes volunteers in the worship, creative and production teams who perform, create and/or capture content for church services and events.

For the full Terms & Conditions section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.

The care and protection of children and young people is of paramount importance to Arise Church. We are committed to following best practice and maintaining a Child and Young Person Protection Policy that guides our processes and procedures.

As such, there are additional requirements for volunteers who interact with children and/or young people as part of their role. These requirements include completing a Police vetting check as well as training on and acknowledgment of Arise's Child and Young Person Protection Policy.

Other volunteer roles requiring a Police vetting check are listed in this section of the handbook.

For the full Additional requirements section, please see the Volunteer Handbook.