'You know you're going to get through this': Volunteers and long-term disaster recovery

As nature-induced disasters intensify and reliance on volunteer support grows, volunteers are now increasingly critical to disaster response and recovery, particularly in countries like Australia. This paper advances our empirical understanding of volunteer contributions to long-term disaster recovery. The use of semi-structured interviews with volunteers who provide disaster recovery support, stakeholders who collaborate with volunteers, and individuals who received recovery support services from volunteers allowed us to identify effective approaches that resonated with and meaningfully aided disaster-affected people. To support individuals and families through the challenging and overwhelming recovery process, volunteers extended relational, compassionate, and agile support. By adopting a long-term perspective focused on housing recovery, rather than engaging in a crisis response role, volunteers were able to set and manage realistic expectations concerning service delivery. Volunteers utilised both their local connections and organisational links to collaborate and communicate, confirming the need to look at the broader context within which they operate.