People across Carlow are being rallied to get involved in Ireland’s National Volunteering Week which takes place from May 14 – 20. This is the time of year when everyone is encouraged to get involved in some kind of volunteering and find out how much fun it can be.

In Carlow people are being called upon to join in a gardening tidy-up in the Irish Wheelchair Association on Thursday 17^th May from 2.30 to 5pm or to help with a make-over of Carlow Rugby Club on Saturday 19^th May between 10 am to 5 pm. 

Information sessions will be held in St Lazerian's House on Tuesday 17th at 7.30 pm and in Visual & GB Shaw Theatre at 12.30 pm (incorporating a free show "Ritz Ballroom" in celebration of Bealtaine).

Carlow Volunteer Centre will have our Information Stand in the Fairgreen Shopping Centre on Monday 14th.

A full list of activities can be seen below. To take part or to get more information, just contact the Centre on 059 9173033.

Following five succesful years of Volunteer Ireland’s National Day of Volunteering, 2012 will see Ireland’s first annual National Volunteering Week take place between May 14th – May 20th. National Volunteering Week is the one week of the year when we encourage everyone in Ireland to give volunteering a try, so that everyone can learn that – even if it’s only for a minute, an hour, or a day – volunteering can make a big difference and be a lot of fun! 

Lunchtime Seminar

Tuesday 6th March, 12.30 - 2pm

Are you part of a new organisation or are you looking to involve volunteers for the first time?

Are you new to managing or co-ordinating volunteers?

Would you like to explore ways of involving volunteers to expand the work of your voluntary group?

This session is aimed at organisations setting out on the path of engaging volunteers in their group. It is designed to help groups understand the best ways to involve volunteers, understand volunteer expectations, and start on a path to ensuring volunteers become a core and positive part of your organisation.

The session is an interactive, fun way to meet like minded organisations, and lunch will be provided.

To book a place, call Fiona on 059 9173033 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

2011 was a great year for volunteering in Co Carlow with over 450 volunteers registering with Carlow Volunteer Centre. These volunteers provided almost 16,000 hours of work in 2011 to a range of different community activities. Using the average industrial wage, this work equates to a value of over €345,000.

Of the volunteers who signed up in 2011, the most popular areas of interest were “Youth” and “Children”, followed by “Older People” and “Arts and Culture”. The most popular reasons for wanting to volunteer were to gain or improve skills – showing that volunteering is viewed as an opportunity for self-advancement, as well as a chance to help others.

70% of the volunteers who signed up with the Volunteer Centre last year had never volunteered before. Over 190 organisations are now registered with Carlow Volunteer Centre – providing a huge range of voluntary opportunities for people with various skills and abilities. Last year 29 new organisations registered with the centre.

Commenting on the success of 2011, Fiona Cunnane, Manager of the Centre, said: “2011 was the European Year of Volunteering so we were delighted to help 450 Carlow residents to start volunteering. It’s remarkable to see that the work of Carlow volunteers in 2011 amounted to a value of over €345,000, but really the difference that volunteers make in our community is too great to accurately measure.”

It’s not too late to make volunteering a New Year’s Resolution. For those interested in volunteering, it’s easy to get involved - call in to the Volunteer Centre at The Mews, 37 Dublin St, Carlow or visit www.volunteercarlow.ie and find a volunteering opportunity near you. Carlow Volunteer Centre is a member of Volunteer Ireland. Volunteer Ireland works to promote, facilitate and celebrate volunteering in Ireland.

Hundreds of people took part in this year's National Day of Volunteering in Carlow - joining the thousands around the country who made this the best NDV yet!

The day was launched in Carlow by Minister Phil Hogan, who visited Carlow Volunteer Centre and met with some of the voluntary groups who participated in previous NDVs.  He conveyed his best wishes to the volunteers and to the Volunteer Centre for their work, and congratulated all those who had demonstrated their commitment to doing something to help their community at this challenging time for our country.

There were a range of projects throughout the day including a Garden Make-over at Carlow Regional Youth Services in Tullow, a charity shop revamp for Forward Steps Family Resource Centre, making Birthday Cards for Meals on Wheels clients, and a sing-along to celebrate both NDV and Positive Ageing Week, organised by Carlow County Development Partnership.  The Carlow Adult Guidance Service held a meeting with colleagues from across the South East to discuss how they could involve their service users in volunteering.

The day finished off with a celebration of volunteering, held in Visual & GB Shaw Theatre where the winners of Unum's "Spirit of Volunteering" photo competition were announced, and Pure Thinking Community Group held a viewing of a short film about the making of their latest community art project.

Thanks to everyone who took part this year or who came along to an event!

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.

Carlow 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.

Welcome to Carlow Volunteer Centre's New Website

We are delighted to welcome you to our newly enhanced website.  In addition to a new look and feel, we have added new sections and information, and hope that the site will bring you to a pleasurable and informative browsing experience.

We are very grateful to our colleagues in Volunteer Centres Ireland for their expertise in setting up this site, and to our great friends in Carlow - Unum - for their generous funding support.

Fiona, Manager, Carlow Volunteer Centre

Dulux Paints Ireland is delighted to announce the their Let's Colour Project. 

The Dulux Let's Colour Project has already brought colour and excitement to countries all aroundthe world including Brazil, India and France, and it is nowcoming to Ireland to brighten local communities. This is an opportunity to get the support of Dulux to paint your local community centre and the great news is that you can source volunteers for your project through Fingal Volunteer Centre and the network of 22 Volunteer Centres across Ireland.

According to Stuart Garland, Fingal Volunteer Centre, “This is a great opportunity for communities all over Fingal County to make change or improvement in their area. By putting a volunteer team together and submitting details for their local project, people really make a difference giving a local project a complete uplift. It could be the local community centre, swimming pool, crèche or children’s play area .... If it’s a community area which looks a little sad and grey needing an colour uplift, this is a great opportunity. Volunteering is loads of fun, empowering and gives people a sense of belonging to Fingla, so go on and get involved. This is not just about painting projects in need of an uplift – it’s much more - the painting of a local project can be a first stepping stone to getting other things done for communities all over Fingal. No better city than Fingal to introduce a little colour into the community.”

For more information on the Let's Colour Project visit their web site.

Check out the project underway in Killenard.

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?

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.

Check out the following links for coverage of the Launch of European Year of Volunteering 2011:

Anna Hughes and Elaine Bradley CEO of Volunteering Ireland on The Daily Show (from c.25 mins)

RTÉ Six One News on Saturday (coverage of the launch from c. 22mins)

President Urges People to Volunteer (Irish Times Saturday)

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/