Introducing the Essential Service Volunteers App
Conceived by the peak body for one of Australia’s largest Volunteer Emergency Services and built from the ground up by a wholly Australian mobile technology company, the ES Volunteers App delivers unprecedented protection, recognition and visibility for our amazing ES Volunteers.
Volunteers can easily log and report the time, location and type of work they do, empowering them with accurate and insightful feedback about their community service and perhaps most importantly, indisputable evidence if required for a future health or compensation claim.
Volunteer managers and policy-makers will for the first time have timely access to accurate statistics about the volunteer effort and any sized business can easily show their support by listing discounts and offers tailored for volunteers from specific services and locations*.
Features That Matter
The Reasons You’ll Love It
One touch tracking
We get it - ES Volunteers have better things to do than mess around with complicated apps while you're working.Easy and quick
ONE. BIG. GREEN. BUTTON.
Press it when you start, don’t think about it again until you finish. Uncomplicated and helpful – just like ES Volunteers!
Discounts and Offers
We know you volunteer for one reason - the community. And lots of businesses want to show they appreciate it.Recognising your contribution
Registered and approved ES Volunteers have access to exclusive discounts and offers listed by local businesses that want to show they support and appreciate the work you do.
Current, like now, ID
Virtual ID that only displays if you're a currently registered and approved ES VolunteerIf it's on, you're approved
The authorised administrator can remotely control the visibility of your virtual ID Card. That means anyone who needs to see it can have 100% confidence you are approved as of this very instant.
Insight and evidence
Report how many hours and even kilometres you did on different volunteering tasksKnow and manage your time
You may need evidence of time and location to qualify for presumptive cancer cover, the government’s income reimbursement or some other future claim – use the app and you can rest assured.
Stats for planning & funding
Accurate, current and easy to use general statistics about whole Brigade time spent, distance travelled and work typesPutting an end to ill-informed debate
Next time your Brigade or Service is appealing to a funding body or needing to explain the enormous effort happening behind the scenes, authorised admins can do it armed with real, accurate statistics.
Support Local Business
The app provides ES Volunteers with a list of supportive local businesses sorted by distanceSmall businesses advertise FREE
Encourage your favourite local businesses to list their opening times so Essential Service Volunteer app users know which shops and suppliers are open and support the work of our amazing volunteers.
Admin: Stats, advocacy, planning
Brigade, Unit and Service administrators will have access to whole of organisation statistics related to the duration, location and type of work logged by the team of volunteers they oversee.
That means no more “guestimating” the number of hours spent or distances travelled when requesting funding for new equipment or planning next year’s likely human resource requirements. It also provides Administrators, Secretaries and Managers with a reliable, accurate and consistent process to substantiate travel, meal and other allowances/reimbursements.
How it works
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the app is free for all ES Volunteers to download.
However, full functionality is only available for users who volunteer for an essential service that has an active subscription.
If your service does not yet have a subscription, please the appropriate person to contact us for how to get the full features enabled for you and your volunteer colleagues ASAP.
To maintain the credibility of our Virtual ID Card and protect content intended for volunteers of specific services, every new user must be approved by a person authorised by the service for which you volunteer.
If you are an active volunteer for one of the services listed below, click the “Register now” button above and you will receive a log in by email as soon your registration is confirmed.
If not, please ask the appropriate person in your service to contact us to discuss how we can get you and your volunteer colleagues up and running ASAP.
Services with an active subscription
WA – Volunteer Bush Fire Brigades
Yes! And we want them all to sign up.
All we need to do is work with an Administrator of each service so we can set it up and cover the costs of the development and data storage.
Ask your line-manager to contact us today.
Yes – our app is fit-for-purpose!
We know that many ES Volunteers work in areas that simply don’t have mobile coverage so we built the app with that specifically in mind.
Even without any kind of phone service, users can log the location, duration and type of work they do and it will be automatically uploaded to their record next time they are connected to a network.
The current version even saves the most recent list of discounts and offers from supportive businesses when the phone last had internet access.
Register your Brigade now
The app has been built to be fully customisable for any of Australia’s essential volunteer services including fire, search and rescue, SES, paramedics, emergency housing, wildlife carers, surf life saving, emergency food and logistics providers.
If you volunteer for a service other than the WA Volunteer Bush Fire Service and would like your service to be set up, please send us a message using the Contact Us page and be sure to include details about your service.
If you belong to the WA Volunteer Bush Fire Service:
- Individual volunteers, complete the registration form below and as soon as we can confirm your status, you’ll receive an email with login details.
- Brigade Captains/CESMs/Local Government Officers: Sign up your whole Brigade so you can start getting the benefit of Brigade-level statistics – download and complete this spreadsheet, then return it to us at [email protected] ASAP and everyone will receive an invitation email.
List & Promote Your Business
Essential Service Volunteers across Australia know that when things get bad, our teams of deeply skilled specialists come together and make a truly awesome team.
Whether it is a wall of fire or raging flood, the grit and determination our incredible members demonstrate time and time again is partly because they have the confidence of knowing that when everyone has everyone else’s back, the question of beating down any threat is 100% “WHEN”, not “IF”.
So embracing that spirit, we are going to use one of the features of the app to support local businesses as we work together toward the other side of the current COVID-19 challenges.
If you know a business that supports volunteers and plays an important role in your community, get them to complete the form below and we will list them in the offers section of the app to tell ES volunteers within 10kms that the business is open and wants customers.
Send this link (https://esvolunteers.org.au/) to every supportive local business operator you know now – they don’t need an offer, just let us help share the news they are still serving the community.
Get In Touch With Us