From Covid response to counting butterfliesvolunteers the beating heart of Clare

by Stuart Holly editor@clareecho.ie

There are over 2,500 people in Clare registered with the Clare Volunteer Centre. It’s an organisation which has, like a great oak tree, spread its roots into places you didn’t realise it could get to.

Some 1,500 Clare Volunteers left an indelible mark when playing their part in the resounding success which was the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in 2016 and 2017. Recently, its volunteers played their part in both the community response to Covid and the response to displaced Ukrainian people arriving in Clare. Other volunteers can at times be found marshalling at events like Darkness Into Light, counting butterflies for an ecological survey, or writing Christmas cards to people living in nursing homes. Once upon a time, the Volunteer Centre helped to facilitate a huge gathering of people named Clare.

“We were trying to break the Guiness World Record for the amount of people with the same name gathering in one place. We didn’t break the record but we had a great weekend and a lot of events for people called Clare who came to Clare that weekend,” says Sharon Meaney, Manager at Clare Volunteer Centre.

With such a wide array of positive seeds being sown in the community, it’s little wonder that the feel good factor comes full circle with various studies finding that volunteering can reduce stress, combat depression, increase self-confidence, keep you mentally stimulated, and provide a sense of purpose.

“Volunteering has so many positive health benefits whether that’s for mental health which has been well-documented, but also for physical health, getting out and about and moving, engaging with the local community,” explains Sharon Meaney.

Sharon has been involved since the local centre’s foundation 15 years ago, having previously worked with the historic Ennis Information Age Town Services.

A Yorkshire native with a West Clare dad, Sharon married a man from West Clare and moved here from Chicago in 1996.

On National Volunteering Week, Sharon notes the importance of celebrating volunteering - and the proud reputation that Irish people have with volunteerism.

“I’m living here over 25 years and I’ve lived in a few other countries and I think Ireland is so unique in the opportunities people have to be able to connect into their local communities, if they take the chance to find out what’s happening.

“National Volunteering Week is a great way to remind people that there are lots of ways they can get involved in their community through volunteering.”

Clare Volunteer Centre is a registered charity funded by the Department of Rural & Community Development. With three staff, it is a high-performing centre and consistently ranks in the top 3 in the country in volunteer placement rate.

Speaking about the Volunteer Centre’s response to the Ukrainian displacement, Sharon explains that they engaged with communities that were receiving people from Ukraine, putting in place volunteer management structure. However she notes that “people from Ukraine, and people who are new to our community, would come into us and look to volunteer as a way to improve their English, share their skills, and get involved and find out about Irish communities.

“There are a lot of organ- isations who are benefitting hugely, such as Tidy Towns and charity shops from an influx of people into their communities who want to get into volunteering.”

Sharon contends that we could “fill the whole of the Clare Echo with case studies that we’ve had over the years of real-life experiences of how volunteering has changed people’s lives”.

“We’ve had people who have found themselves out of work for different reasons and finding the day long and unstructured, and volunteering gave them opportunity to get structure back into their lives.” She continues, “Contrary to public opinion, our biggest cohort of volunteers are aged 26-35, young people really do want to get involved in volunteering but they want to know the impact of what their volunteering does. They see it as an oppoiruntiy not just for their CV, an opportunity to network, to make connections, to learn new skills, and certainly we hear back on a mental health perspective, it is so beneficial, because as much as you are giving as a volunteer, you are getting something back. There is that feel good factor and i think that’s a really important part of why people volunteer.”

She is encouraging communities and organisations to get in contact with Clare Volunteer Centre to explore ways they can engage volunteers.

“The volunteer opportunities are ongoing continually, we have lots of volunteer roles we’re recruiting for at the moment from bus driver to ‘cycle without age’, a fantastic project in Kilrush in a nursing home, we’re recruiting volunteers to cycle these bicycles with two seats and you take a nursing home resident for a cycle around the Vandeluer gardens.”

Volunteering is open to all ages. To find out more visit www.volunteerclare.ie or call 065 68 45517.