Every Contribution Matters: A Story of YRIPP’s Volunteers
By Edmond Babatunde, Coordinator of Volunteering – Youth Referral and Independent Person Program (YRIPP)
When the phone rings in the still of the night, most people roll over and return to sleep. But somewhere across Victoria, an Independent Person (IP) sits up, pulls on a jacket, and prepares to step into a moment that could change a young person’s life.
YRIPP’s volunteers don’t wear capes, and they don’t ask for applause. They walk into police stations carrying nothing more than calm voices, patient listening, and a commitment to fairness. Yet their presence ripples outward in ways that often go unseen until you look closely.
Take the early-morning callout where an anxious teenager sits alone, in a state of distress. They’re there to safeguard something more delicate: the young person’s sense that they matter. The simple act of showing up says:
You’re not alone in this room. Your rights are important. You are important.
That’s the heart of YRIPP’s work, and it’s where the 2025 International Volunteer Day theme, Every Contribution Matters, comes alive.
Some volunteers contribute by attending dozens of callouts each year, quietly becoming a steady presence in their area. Others bring deep professional and cultural awareness, making young people feel understood in the context of their circumstances. Many balance callouts with work, family, study, and community life, carving out hours wherever they can because they believe every young person deserves fairness and dignity. Together, these contributions form a mosaic. Each tile, small on its own, creates a picture of a safer, kinder system for young people across Victoria.
What makes YRIPP volunteers extraordinary is not the grand gesture, but the accumulation of small ones: a late-night drive, a reassuring smile, a moment of patience when someone else is losing theirs. It’s the quiet volunteer who never seeks recognition but keeps saying yes. It’s the person who adapts to new procedures, supports new volunteers, and encourages young people to seek services that support diversion from their offending behaviour.
In the story of YRIPP, no contribution is too small to matter. In fact, the program is built on the sum of these small, consistent acts; acts that reshape difficult moments into opportunities for fairness, humanity, and hope.
This International Volunteer Day, YRIPP recognises and honours every volunteer who has stepped forward. Their contributions, seen and unseen, remind us that real change often begins with the simple courage to show up.
Because in the world of YRIPP, and in the lives of the young people they support, every contribution truly matters.