Galway Volunteer Centre has reported an exceptionally busy first half of 2009, with over 1,000 members of the public registering for the first time to use the service. It has been the busiest six months for the centre since it opened in July 2006 and it is now one of the three busiest volunteer centres in Ireland.
The centre now has over 2,600 volunteers on its books and has advertised over 600 vacancies for organisations.
“More people have come to our doors already in 2009 than the total amount in 2008. We expect this trend to continue for the rest of the year and beyond. We are also seeing an increase in the amount of organisations seeking help from volunteers,” said Donncha Foley, Development Manager with GVC. Donncha states that Galway Volunteer Centre has recently recruited some volunteers to help in the centre’s office to meet the rising interest in volunteering.
The centre estimates that people finding voluntary work through GVC have contributed at least 51,000 hours volunteering in the local community, which is the equivalent of 31 full-time workers. Statistics also show that most of the people registering with the centre have never volunteered before.
“Many people coming into us since late 2008 are unemployed and are finding it hard to access other employment. A lot of people are looking at volunteering as an ideal way to keep skills active or to try new things out. At the moment our challenge is to find enough suitable opportunities for all the people who are registering with us,” said Donncha.
Anyone interested in using the service can call to the office or register online at www.volunteergalway.ie “We usually have around 100 vacancies available at any one time and we meet with as many people as possible to identify suitable opportunities for them. I would encourage anyone who is seeking work to think seriously about volunteering as a way to learn new and refresh existing skills that they may have,” said Donncha.
Galway Volunteer Centre is a one-stop shop for voluntary activity, providing volunteering opportunities for the public, sourcing much-needed volunteers for organisations and providing support for organisations in managing volunteers.
Galway Volunteer Centre is the fulfilment of the hard work of volunteers and voluntary organisations and is being funded in 2009 by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Galway City Council, and Galway Rural Development.
For more information on Galway Volunteer Centre you can visit the website on www.volunteergalway.ie, phone 091 539930 or call into the office at 17/18 Mill Street.
