The Mount Gambier resident has volunteered with the Department for Child Protection for almost three years, transporting children to school, access visits with family members and appointments.

“I get so much fulfilment out of it – I love it,” Jane says.

“I feel like they’re doing just as much for me.”

During National Volunteer Week (20-26 May), the department is recognising the vital work of about 180 volunteers, who provide support for children, carers, families and social workers.

Along with offering an important transport service, volunteers assist children with homework support, help them with their Life Story Book (memory scrapbooks) and support them at special events.

Jane transports children of all ages, but says she especially enjoys working with teenagers, who she describes as “salt of the earth, and our future”.

“Because I come from a big family, I can draw on all the experiences from people in my family and encourage them,” the 65-year-old says.

For example, she has enjoyed getting to know a young man who she encouraged to study a trade, and watching him become very interested in a future working as an electrician.

“He’s decided all these steps he wants to do in his life and he wants to do them before he’s 30,” Jane says.

“He’s also talking about having his own business. It was really exciting to hear him talking like that.”

Another special moment for her was transporting a baby to his carer’s home, and witnessing the connection he shares with the carer and her other foster children, now adults, who still visit the carer just as any other siblings would visit their mother.

“They still go out to their foster parent’s house – that’s their mother and their children’s grandmother. They were fighting over him (the baby), to get the first cuddle,” she says.

“It gives you a bit of hope that the world’s not all bad.”

Minister for Child Protection Katrine Hildyard said volunteers played a vital role in creating safe, loving and supportive environments for children and young people.

“I am eternally grateful to our volunteers for the generous choice they make and for their enormous hearts.  They provide really important support and they are another kind, caring and trusted adult in children and young people’s lives,” she says.

“Volunteers offer crucial support to children and families including kinship and foster carers; their generous service makes a difference in children’s lives, strengthens families, gives people a break and helps build stronger communities.

“National Volunteer Week is the perfect opportunity to thank special people like Jane for dedicating so much time and energy and for acting with such compassion in ways that support some of our state’s children who most need a hand.”

To say thank you to its volunteers, the department will host a special celebration at Sunnybrae Estate, Regency Park, on Thursday 23 May.

For more information on volunteering, visit childprotection.sa.gov.au/volunteers, or contact the volunteer coordinator team on 0492 000 743 or DCPVolunteerProgram@sa.gov.au.