Centre reports renewed interest from volunteers
Tallaght Echo - 23rd March 2004
THE TALLAGHT Volunteer Bureau are reporting that pro-active approaches to recruitment and placement are reversing the perception that volunteerism is a dying deed.
Contained in its recently released annual review for 2003 and the sister publication of a Strategic Plan 2004-2006, there is a positive appraisal of the volunteering situation around Tallaght.
At the end of last week there were 854 people registered with the bureau providing the sustenance for 209 organisations to fill more than 500 placement opportunities in the locality.
Already this year 60 new volunteers have been recruited, three fifths of whom had never volunteered before but who have all helped to keep both the supply and demand buoyant from last year.
Throughout its four year existence the TVB has been pressed to match the right skills with the opportunities that are available, a focus bureau manager Tricia Nolan is looking to further develop.
She said: "We think there are lots of people willing to give but who can often be put off by organisations who don't know how to use them correctly.
"We would like to help organisations identify volunteering roles that would be useful to them, creating a skills transfer rather than just giving people meaningless jobs."
In order to enhance the potential of volunteers in Tallaght the group are preparing to welcome a training officer who has been taken on to show groups how to get the most from volunteers, benefiting the groups themselves and the volunteers who sign up.
In spite of the TVB being continually held up as a model for other such operators they are still faced with the familiar struggle with finding funds to provide the level of service they would wish.
On the ground, the TVB is set to loose its Youth Officer who is credited with seeing more than 40 per cent of volunteers being drawn from the 16 and 25 age category, almost twice the recognised national average.
With grants from the Irish Youth Foundation drying up, the TVB were forced to fund the placement themselves but with a total annual income of less than ?115,000 they will not be able to keep the post open past July of 2004.
Still the bureau is looking forward with a degree of optimism in its attempt to meet the demands put on it by volunteers and organisations alike.
Importantly Ms Nolan is keen to stress the need for not just volunteers to come forward but also for groups to identify a range of tasks to entice and challenge those who step forward.
Roles the TVB say they are looking for, range from web-design, landscaping, administration, management advice and a whole host more tasks available for people to transfer their professional skills to voluntary environment.
THE TALLAGHT Volunteer Bureau are reporting that pro-active approaches to recruitment and placement are reversing the perception that volunteerism is a dying deed.
Contained in its recently released annual review for 2003 and the sister publication of a Strategic Plan 2004-2006, there is a positive appraisal of the volunteering situation around Tallaght.
At the end of last week there were 854 people registered with the bureau providing the sustenance for 209 organisations to fill more than 500 placement opportunities in the locality.
Already this year 60 new volunteers have been recruited, three fifths of whom had never volunteered before but who have all helped to keep both the supply and demand buoyant from last year.
Throughout its four year existence the TVB has been pressed to match the right skills with the opportunities that are available, a focus bureau manager Tricia Nolan is looking to further develop.
She said: "We think there are lots of people willing to give but who can often be put off by organisations who don't know how to use them correctly.
"We would like to help organisations identify volunteering roles that would be useful to them, creating a skills transfer rather than just giving people meaningless jobs."
In order to enhance the potential of volunteers in Tallaght the group are preparing to welcome a training officer who has been taken on to show groups how to get the most from volunteers, benefiting the groups themselves and the volunteers who sign up.
In spite of the TVB being continually held up as a model for other such operators they are still faced with the familiar struggle with finding funds to provide the level of service they would wish.
On the ground, the TVB is set to loose its Youth Officer who is credited with seeing more than 40 per cent of volunteers being drawn from the 16 and 25 age category, almost twice the recognised national average.
With grants from the Irish Youth Foundation drying up, the TVB were forced to fund the placement themselves but with a total annual income of less than ?115,000 they will not be able to keep the post open past July of 2004.
Still the bureau is looking forward with a degree of optimism in its attempt to meet the demands put on it by volunteers and organisations alike.
Importantly Ms Nolan is keen to stress the need for not just volunteers to come forward but also for groups to identify a range of tasks to entice and challenge those who step forward.
Roles the TVB say they are looking for, range from web-design, landscaping, administration, management advice and a whole host more tasks available for people to transfer their professional skills to voluntary environment.