A report launched in Wodonga on Tuesday has eight recommendations to help volunteer bureaus build better social cohesion.

The first is to "expand the emphasis, language, and basic orientation of the volunteering support sector from 'volunteering' to 'participation'".

One of the report's authors Ross Wyatt said 'volunteer' was an outdated term.

"Volunteerism is kind of a colonial concept, it comes from those early days of religious organisations helping those in need and that's still framing the way the federal government has supported it," Mr Wyatt said.

"It's putting up a barrier to young people, those with disabilities, newcomers and immigrants."

Albury Wodonga Volunteer Resource Bureau chief executive Jemma Toohey said participation also reflected a link to "transformational rather than transactional activities".

Reflecting that switch, new job titles of participation manager multicultural and participation manager stakeholders have been adopted by the bureau's Renee Wilson and Sharon Pellas in the past three months.

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Ms Toohey did not rule out the bureau's name altering as part of the language switch.

The bureau was formed in 1989.

Other recommendations in the report, commissioned by the federal government to bolster the nation's social cohesion, include implementing a national participation strategy, expanding resource centres and committing to long-term core funding.

Ms Toohey will join other sector leaders, including the National Network of Volunteer Resource Centres, Julie Pettett, on a trip to Canberra in February to lobby for government adoption of the recommendations.

They hope to meet Families and Social Services Minister Anne Ruston.