Welcome to our final newsletter of 2021. It has been a remarkable year of challenge and hope. While the events of the past year may have been unprecedented, so too was the incredible response of volunteers, showing community spirit and providing invaluable support.

As you prepare for the festive season, we hope you take some time to reflect and remember the contribution you have made in 2021.

Here at Volunteer Ireland, we have had a busy year supporting volunteers and organisations throughout Ireland. We held our first virtual Volunteer Management Conference, had another successful National Volunteering Week, launched the Community Volunteers programme and supported the delivery of the National Volunteering Strategy. We look forward to further celebrating and advancing volunteering in Ireland throughout the year ahead.

If you are volunteering over the festive period, don't forget to check out the handy factsheets and resources available here on our website.

In this newsletter, we'll share some updates and highlights from 2021, and we look forward to keeping in touch in 2022. All that remains is to wish you a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

7 New Volunteer Centres Open

We were delighted see seven new Volunteer Centres open across Ireland in 2021, meaning that there is now a Volunteer Centre in every county. Speaking earlier in the year, Minister Joe O’Brien said: “With the opening of these seven new Centres, we are further strengthening our volunteering infrastructure across the country and this will provide invaluable support to volunteers and volunteering activity in our communities.'

Community Volunteers

The Community Volunteers programme launched earlier this year. It was developed based on lessons learned about volunteering during COVID-19 to help us further strengthen and support volunteering in our communities. It gives people the opportunity to get involved in local events and festivals while also supporting more urgent needs. The programme will be delivered by local Volunteer Centres and has already begun in Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Louth, Meath and Wicklow. We look forward to more counties joining the programme in 2022.

Over 500 volunteers have engaged in Community Volunteer introductory webinars and training since October, highlighting people's commitment to supporting their communities throughout Ireland.

E-LEARNING AND CAPACITY BUILDING HIGHLIGHTS

Volunteer Friendly

Carlow, South Dublin County, Louth, Tipperary and Dublin City Volunteer Centres together with Volunteer Ireland are supporting 17 organisations in a pilot programme to achieve the Volunteer Friendly Award, which sets out good practice for groups to meet when involving volunteers. Volunteer Friendly is an accessible, meaningful quality standard that is aimed at small to medium sized organisations who want to assess and improve the quality of their programmes. We look forward to sharing the findings from the pilot and the launch of the Volunteer Friendly Award in 2022.

CORPORATE'S DOING GOOD

Over 400 Regeneron volunteers in Limerick and Dublin got involved during Regeneron’s global employee volunteer week. 'Days for Doing Good' was facilitated with Volunteer Ireland’s large scale Corporate Partnerships Programme. Volunteers provided business support to local charities, delivered STEM activities to primary school students, engaged 5th & 6th year students in Career Connections sessions and packed almost 1,400 toiletry kits for the homeless and play packs for pre-school children.

Well done to all the Regeneron volunteers and a big thank you to all the community organisations who got involved throughout the week.

New Chairperson - Board of Volunteer Ireland

We would like to take this opportunity to thank William Earley for his contribution to the Board of Volunteer Ireland since his appointment in 2012. William has retired from his role as Chairperson, and the position has been taken up by Carmel Murphy.

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