Do you have some spare time and want to volunteer with one of the most worthwhile charities in the country? Then the ISPCC Mayo has the role for you. ISPCC Mayo is currently recruiting people for two different volunteer roles, in either Childline or the ISPCC advocacy role.
Fiona Jennings from ISPCC Mayo told the Mayo Advertiser: “With January now with us, it is the time of the year that people decide to get involved with groups and we’re looking for some new members to join our fantastic team who do outstanding work already.”
Childline volunteers will be trained to listen to and support children and young people in a non-judgmental way via telephone, web, and text. Advocacy volunteers will be trained to raise awareness of children’s issues in the community and to ensure children’s voices are heard.
Explaining more about the advocacy role Fiona Jennings said: “The advocacy volunteer role is one that will see people get involved with other groups and politicians to keep the issue of children’s rights and issues to the fore. It’s a very exciting role that will see a lot of outreach work being done in the community.”
Before Christmas there was a major scare that Childline might have to withdraw its services at night time due to a lack of funding. A funding agreement between the Government and the charity in late December ensured that this was averted. However the response from the public in Mayo to the charity when the potential loss of services became public is something for which Fiona wanted to say thank you. “The response from people just calling up to say they wanted to do fundraising for us was unbelievable, I think a lot of people didn’t realise that the service wasn’t fully funded by the State and it opened their eyes to that. We had schools doing fundraisers for us and other groups like the Castlebar male choir raised money for us over the Christmas period and we were so delighted to get it. Group interview and information meetings will take place in ISPCC Mayo on Wednesday January 14 and Thursday January 22. You only need attend one, and both start at 6.30pm. For more information contact ISPCC Mayo on (094 ) 9025254.”
