Retired church Minister Barry Clarke is using his life experience and sense of mission to help refugees and migrants build new lives in Melbourne.

Barry volunteers with migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia as a ‘conversation coach’ to help the newcomers to improve their English.

“Through my work in the church, I’ve become comfortable with interacting with people socially and my wife was a schoolteacher – so the combined influence of these thing gives me the feeling I have some teaching gifts I can use to help others,” Barry said.

“I have been volunteering with AMES for about 12 years. I enjoy being with people and I’ve done a lot of travelling, so I enjoy learning about other cultures,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve been blessed having English as my native language and that it is something I can use to help others.”

Barry says Monday is his volunteering day. In the morning, I volunteer at my local neighbourhood house in Richmond and in the afternoon, I come into the city to volunteer with AMES.

“I run conversation classes with newly arrived migrants and refugees. Either Marjory, their teacher, will give me a sheet with some points on it to follow up on what they have been doing in class, or I will come with my own discussion points to talk over. It’s all about improving the students’ conversational language,” Barry said.

“I also bring a ukelele and sometimes sing some songs that maybe help the students think about their own lives and broader social issues.

“I particularly enjoy helping people understand Australian vernacular and idiom, which are such an important part of Australian English.”     

Barry says the rewards of volunteering far outweigh the effort he puts in.

“I enjoy talking with the students and doing so motivates me to help them. I get as much out of volunteering, or even more, than I contribute,” he said.

“I go home enriched by the experience of volunteering, and I would recommend it to anyone.”

Barry says volunteering with migrants and refugees does, at times, present challenges.

“I’m aware that there are cultural differences and sensitivities that present themselves and you have to be mindful of that. But overwhelmingly, people are understanding and forgiving when these things occur.”

Volunteering to help individuals can build skills and knowledge, enhance employment opportunities, provide new and challenging experiences as well as deliver feelings of personal satisfaction through contributing, a new survey has found.

It also delivers measurable benefits to those being supported; including help in finding work and acquiring skills as well intangible and benefits such as friendship and building connections within communities, the survey found.

To mark National Volunteer Week 2026, the survey was commissioned by migrant and refugee settlement agency AMES Australia. It canvased the attitudes of 85 of the organisation’s volunteers working mostly one-on-one with newly arrived refugees and migrants.

It found that overwhelmingly, volunteers believed they, themselves, benefitted directly through helping others.

Asked whether they benefitted from their volunteering work, 32 per cent of volunteers said they benefitted ‘significantly’ and 78 per cent said they benefitted ‘somewhat’.

Among the top benefits listed were ‘a feeling of satisfaction through contributing’ (96 per cent), ‘learning about new cultures (77 per cent), ‘building social and professional networks’ (59 per cent), ‘improving personal and communication (soft) skills’ and ‘enhancing employment opportunities’ (39 per cent).