It's the New Year - a good time to make a resolution to get involved in your community.  This article appeared here in the Irish Times on 31st December 2011

Giving just a little back can go a long way and prove an inspirational experience

GIVE BACK IN 2012. Give your time. Your skills and talents. Your companionship. Volunteering costs nothing but the experience of people involved in charitable or community endeavours suggests that making volunteering a priority in 2012 could vastly improve the quality of your year.

THE EXPERTS 

“The silver lining on the very dark cloud of recession has been the response of many individuals who decided to get more engaged in their communities through volunteering,” says Yvonne McKenna, chief executive officer of Volunteering Ireland. She describes volunteering as “one of the most profound expressions of democracy and citizenship” and a way for people to make an immediate impact on their community.

It’s good for you too. “There’s a much more mature attitude to volunteering or participation now. It’s recognised more as an exchange than just an act of ‘helping those less fortunate than ourselves’. The reality is that volunteering is both give and take. It’s good for the recipients but it’s also good for the volunteer themselves, their community and their society.”

It’s time, she suggests, to rethink volunteering and to recognise the diversity it represents. “Volunteering doesn’t always have to be formal, you don’t need to join an organisation or sign up for a specific initiative. The recent UN State of World’s Volunteerism Report highlighted the importance of what they called ‘informal volunteering’.”

This could mean anything from dropping unwanted clothes to a charity shop to calling on an older neighbour to check how they are. It’s also about communities relying on their own resources. She points to the Grow It Yourself movement and the rise in community gardens and allotments as an example.

“It’s impossible to sum up volunteering as just ‘an’ activity,” she says. “It is fundraising and it is befriending and it’s coaching the team and making cakes for a charity sale. It’s all of this and more. What connects volunteers is the act of giving time to others. When you think of it that way it’s impossible to put limits on it.”

More than 25 years ago Mary Nally called a meeting in her village of Summerhill, Co Meath to discuss the fact that there was nothing for older people to do in the village. Forty people turned up. From there an active retirement association was set up which ultimately became Third Age, a national organisation with 1,000 older volunteers across the country. They are involved in the Senior Help Line and Failte Isteach, where volunteers give English classes to immigrants. Through the Third Age National Advocacy Programme, trained volunteers speak up and advocate for older people in nursing homes.

Nally suggests that those interested in volunteering should start locally. “Look around your own community, see what is happening there and identify projects you’d like to get involved with,” she says.

While the benefits to the recipients are obvious, Nally is passionate about how volunteering can benefit the giver. “There is an excellent body of research now which proves the value of volunteering to the giver in terms of fulfilment, self-esteem, satisfaction, remaining connected and engaged with life, increasing social contacts and learning new skills. I think all of us can relate to that good feeling we get when we give, especially if the gift is an unselfish act to help another person. I’d encourage everyone to get involved with volunteering in any way they can.”

‘ACTIVE AGEING IN DUN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN’  

2012 has been nominated European Year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council’s Social Inclusion Unit jointly recently organised a photographic competition with the theme ‘Active Ageing in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown’.  Amateur photographers were asked to enter a photograph which showed older people in the county’ playing an active part in the workforce, participating in community life or in pursuit of healthy fulfilling lives.’

12 photographs were selected from the entries for a 2012 calendar to celebrate ‘European Year of Active Ageing’. These photos were on display in dlr County Hall for the recent Community Awards evening on November 17^th.

The winning photographer, Ger Ryan was presented with his prize on the evening for a photograph of veteran rowers in action from his club, St Michael’s Rowing Club in Dun Laoghaire.

Volunteer Centres Ireland and Volunteering Ireland have now merged to create Volunteer Ireland, a single national volunteering organisation for Ireland. The services and supports for volunteering previously offered by two organisations will now be delivered by one: from the Ireland InVOLved Awards to the National Day of Volunteering.

The creation of Volunteer Ireland is great news for volunteering in Ireland. Combining the skills, strengths and talents of VCI and VI into a single national volunteering organisation will mean we can build on the considerable achievements of our two organisations to date and increase the services and supports for volunteering in Ireland. As a bigger, better and unified organisation for volunteering, Volunteer Ireland will be far better placed to respond to the needs of volunteering. 2011 is European Year of Volunteering and Volunteer Ireland will be a fantastic legacy of it.

The focus of Volunteer Ireland will be to create an enabling environment for volunteering, to develop an ethos of volunteerism across all sectors of society and to be an independent and legitimate voice for volunteering. Working with our local Volunteer Centres, volunteer-involving organisations and volunteers, Volunteer Ireland will be a powerful advocate for volunteering in Ireland.

Dún Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre is now an affiliated member of Volunteer Ireland, and the development is not expected to change the nature of our work or role in the local community.  We wish all the staff and volunteers of Volunteer Ireland the very best in their efforts to create a single, great volunteering organisation for Ireland.

A survey from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals that the amount of time spent by Irish people volunteering outside the home is the third equal highest in the OECD. Ireland is the second highest country in the OECD for citizens volunteering time, giving money and helping a stranger.

The surveys says that on average 60% have done so in the previous month, compared to an OECD average of 39%. The survey - carried out in 29 industrialised countries - also reveals that Mexicans work the longest days and Belgians the shortest. Mexicans toil for 10 hours a day on average in paid and unpaid work, such as household chores. Belgians work just seven hours, which is one less than the average in most other OECD countries.

The study is based on surveys of people between the ages of 15 and 64 in 26 OECD member countries plus China, India and South Africa. The surveys required people to say what they were doing every five minutes or so over the course of the day.

The poll covered people in retirement or on days off from work, meaning the averages are skewed by countries with more generous holiday allowances or earlier retirement ages.

Key findings Ireland (Adobe pdf)
Key findings unpaid work (Adobe pdf)
Download the full report (Adobe pdf)

In 2011, the spotlight shifts from Poverty and Social Exclusion to Volunteering, with the baton passed from the EU Year for combating poverty and social exclusion to the European Year of Volunteering 2011.  What is the link? How can we build on the strengths of volunteering yet guard against the risks of abuse in the context of current attacks on Europe's welfare State and social model?

Check out some photographs from our Volunteer Management Training course

Volunteer Centres Ireland is delighted to announce that our bid for European Funding for the European Year of Volunteering flagship project has been successful. VCI’s application was made in partnership with three other organisations: Business in the Community Ireland, Focus Ireland and the National Standards Authority of Ireland to develop a national quality standard for involving volunteers.

The central objective of our proposal is to improve the quality of volunteering and we’re delighted the awarding body recognised the importance of that. We are also extremely excited to be working with BITC, Focus and NSAI on what we’re sure will be a fruitful project that will have a lasting and positive impact on volunteering in Ireland and a fantastic legacy for 2011 – the European Year of Volunteering.

As part of the project we will research, design, pilot and implement a quality standard framework for volunteer-involving organisations in Ireland appropriate to the community and voluntary sector here, which will be a model for other EU countries without an equivalent standard to learn from and adapt or adopt accordingly. The framework, incorporating policy, procedures and practices will serve as a benchmark for organisations to achieve best practice in involving volunteers and an award system to allow for public display of commitment to quality.

Our partners, Business In The Community and The National Standard Authority in Ireland will undertake the design of the quality framework, including the most appropriate and accessible format for volunteer-involving organisations to engage with it. It will be piloted in Focus Ireland, nother partner, and then it will be rolled out nationwide, providing a standard that we hope all not-profit volunteer-involving organisations in Ireland will aspire to achieve. The result will be more effective volunteer-involving organisations and a culture of best practice in volunteering in Ireland: a more enabling environment for volunteering!

Check out the speeches at the launch of EYV 2011 in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham

Check out the interview with Ian O'Flynn, Manager of Westmeath Volunteer Centre on the Moncrief Show on Newstalk 106 - 108fm where Ian talks about volunteering and volunteer centres.

Volunteers in Youth Organisations Building Europe! from European Youth Forum on Vimeo.

The European Union have designated this year as The European Year of Volunteering (EYV2011). Each European country has its own coordinating body for the year and Volunteering Ireland is coordinating body for Ireland. There will be many events occurring throughout 2011 which will celebrate and promote volunteering in Irish society.

EYV 2011 will kick off with an opening ceremony on February 12th in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham between 2 and 4pm. President Mary McAleese will be present and has kindly agreed to be Patron for the Year. The Irish EYV 2011 web site (www.eyv2011.ie) has recently been launched, check it out for more information.  

For the latest on EYV 2011 events in Fingal check our EYV 2011 pages on this web site.  

The main EU EYV 2011 web site can be accessed at http://europa.eu/volunteering/