FIVE volunteers represented North County Dublin at this year’s Foróige National Volunteer Conference, held in Sligo.
Fran Bentley, Lisa Nic An Bhreithinm, Dani Duffy, Rachel Moore and Des Culleton were among hundreds who travelled from all over Ireland to the Yeats County, which is the European capital of volunteering for 2017.
The volunteers were given the opportunity to participate in workshops and exchange ideas on best practice in youth work.
Foróige also launched the results of a survey of 500 of its volunteers that it conducted this year. The findings included:
•Over 95 per cent of Foróige volunteers feel they benefit from volunteering,
•The biggest benefit volunteers gain from volunteering is ‘A greater sense of belonging’,
•The biggest challenge facing volunteers working with young people was found to be ‘Too few volunteers’ according to over 31 per cent of respondents, and
•89 per cent of volunteers feel youth work needs greater resources.
Sean Campbell, chief executive of Foróige, said: “The work of youth work volunteers is crucial to the well-being of young people. What this survey shows is that it is also of enormous benefit to the adult volunteers.
“Volunteers feed back to us all the time that helping young people, getting involved in their local community and meeting other volunteers is one of the most positive forces for good in their lives.”