Welcome to our final newsletter of 2020. It's not the year any of us expected but one constant has been the outpouring of support from volunteers and organisations in communities across the country. As always, you stepped up and made sure that no-one was left behind.

We have been working hard at Volunteer Ireland all year to make sure volunteers and organisations were supported through this uncertain time. If you need any support over the festive period, check our website for a host of resources or our Vimeo channel for some short training videos.

We won't attempt to look back at this crazy year in a short newsletter but read on for some highlights of recent months. We look forward to engaging with you all again next year but until then we hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year!

Ireland's First National Volunteering Strategy Launched

Volunteer Ireland and the network of Volunteer Centres have been advocating for a national volunteering strategy for many years. We are delighted to say that after a long collaborative process, the Department of Rural and Community Development have just launched the National Volunteering Strategy 2021 - 2025. It contains 56 ambitious actions and we look forward to working with the Department and other stakeholders to deliver the strategy and continue to enhance and support volunteering into the future.

Learn more

Volunteer Ireland Awardees Announced

We are delighted to announce this year's Volunteer Ireland Awardees. As a physical event was not possible this year each awardee received a special surprise delivery from Volunteer Ireland announcing their win. Watch the video below to see how it all unfolded. Warning: tissues may be required!

View all awardees

RESEARCH

New research commissioned by Volunteer Ireland shows that 75% of people volunteered during the pandemic with grocery shopping the most popular activity.

BLOG

We have been advocating across the year on behalf of volunteers and organisations. Read all about what we've been up to this year in our latest blog.

TRAINING

Our training calendar was more full than ever this year with a move to e-learning. Check out what training we have in store for next year by checking out our 2021 calendar.