New Volunteer Programme for Sligo

The delivery of a new Volunteer Programme for Sligo is well underway.  Ciara O’Hara took up her post as Volunteer Programme Development Worker in February. The programme is being administered by Sligo County Council’s Directorate of Community & Enterprise with the support of Peace & Reconciliation funding. It is hoped that the Volunteer Centre will be up and running out of a new premises within the next few months.

- Incoming Board of Directors for Sligo Volunteer Centre.

Back row L-R: Martin Lydon, Sligo County Council; Joe Doherty, Voluntary Youth Council; Declan Breen, Sligo County Council;

Front Row L-R: Sarah Wetherald, Sligo Leader Partnership; Des Keaney, HSE North West; Ciara O’Hara, Sligo County Council

The main aim of the Centre will be to act as ‘A One Stop Shop for Voluntary Activity’ covering Sligo city and county. Sligo Volunteer Centre will provide ongoing support and education around volunteering to individuals and organisations who interact with volunteers.
 
There is much to be gained for organisations to register with the Volunteer Centre. Their vacancies will be registered on the Volunteer database and any potential volunteers, whom the Centre will be actively targeting throughout the year, will have access to those opportunities.  There will also be training opportunities for organisations as well as networking opportunities with other volunteer involving organisations.

The Volunteer Centre will run under the management of the Board of Directors who had an inaugural meeting on April 6th in conjunction with the Advisory Committee who have steered the Project so far. Great credit is due to the Advisory Committee for their guidance and role in directing the Project to date. The Board of Directors will now take over their new role in advising and managing the Volunteer Centre.

Sligo Volunteer Centre have been promoting this initiative and have organised a training programme for Community & Voluntary Groups that will cover all aspects of Volunteer Management and in particular the development of a Volunteer Policy. The training will take place in May and June. There was a lot of interest in this training and the limited places could not meet demand. It is hoped that training such as this will be a regular feature of the Volunteer Centres programme of events.

Over the coming weeks and months there will be information days and evenings around the county on an outreach basis. Keep an eye out locally for details of the information session nearest you! Any organisations who wish to involve volunteers and any people who want to get involved in volunteering in any way will be most welcome to these information events where you can meet staff of Sligo Volunteer Centre. In the mean time if anybody wants to find out more information please contact Ciara O’Hara on (071) 9111813 or email cohara@sligococo.ie.