Dubliners urged to get involved in volunteering

ONE in five people don’t volunteer because they don’t know how to get involved, recent research has suggested.

Now, in an effort to encourage more people to get involved in helping out, the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre is calling on the public to engage in volunteering in the community next month.

It’s all part of National Volunteering Week that takes place from May 11-17.

National Volunteering Week highlights the multitude of ways that individuals and organisations can get involved in supporting causes, aiding charities and helping in their local communities.

Volunteer Ireland is the national volunteer development agency and a support body for all local volunteer centres in Ireland. Their vision is for every person to be connected to and participating in their communities to build a better Irish society. Volunteer Ireland works to increase awareness of, access to and quality in volunteering in Ireland.

Research commissioned by Volunteer Ireland has found that for 20 per cent of people the main barrier to getting involved in volunteering is not knowing where or how to find opportunities.

This is what Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre is determined to change during National Volunteering Week.

Encouragingly the research, carried out by nfpSynergy, also found that 25 per cent of Irish adults are involved in regular volunteering.

The most common place where people volunteer, at 72 per cent, is with a local charity. The most common motivation to volunteer was to support a specific cause (55 per cent), while helping out in the local community was the priority for 53 per cent of volunteers.

To show people where the multitude of opportunities lie, the centre is highlighting how people can make the most of volunteering week.

Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre Manager Sarah Burgess said:

“The key step is to go to www.volunteer.ie where people can find a volunteering role near them to suit their interest or skill.

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Alternatively, people can call into or phone Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre on (01) 2090630. People can also contact South Dublin County Volunteer Centre at (01) 4628558, or the Dublin City Volunteer centre at (01) 4737482.

Ms Burgess also drew attention to using the online volunteer database

‘I-VOL’, which can also be found at www.volunteer.ie

I-VOL works both ways in that people can search for volunteering opportunities in their local areas while organisations also can post that they are searching for volunteers.

In 2014 more than 12,400 volunteers clocked up an incredible 470,000 hours of volunteering. See www.volunteer.ie