Carrick-on-Shannon woman calls for more Leitrim people to volunteer

Faye Hayden, from Carrick-on-Shannon, has told of the rewards of bringing playfulness, humour and empathy to her volunteering work with a youth group in her region.

Her story about the benefits of volunteering is part of a new National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) campaign, urging people in Leitrim, and across the country, to consider volunteering with their local youth work groups, following a sharp decline in volunteer numbers as a result of the pandemic.

Faye runs the Young Carer Project in Roscommon and volunteers with autistic teenagers in Leitrim.

Speaking about her experience of volunteering, Faye noted how important it has been to meet young people on their level to help them express themselves: “Hearing the words ‘weird, odd, a bit strange’ – young people diagnosed as autistic get this all the time. And there’s so much negativity that goes with that. So, at our youth group, we encourage them to ‘embrace the weird’. We love diving into their obsessions and learning all about them. And we use humour and playfulness to help the young people learn about social skills. We have a bit of craic with it, celebrating the extraordinary and unusual. I feel like that’s what youth work volunteering needs to be – it’s all about making them feel that they matter.”

The NYCI is urging people across the country to consider volunteering with their local youth work groups. The call comes in response to research figures published in its recent report ‘Youth Work and Covid-19’ which found youth work volunteer numbers across the country dropped by 64%, as a result of the pandemic, due to public health restrictions, personal health concerns and people not being in a position to work online.

The national volunteer recruitment campaign ‘Community is You’ aims to inspire and encourage people to get involved with local youth work groups, and ultimately restore youth work volunteer numbers to pre-pandemic levels.

Commenting on the campaign, Mary Cunningham, CEO of NYCI, said: “Local youth groups play an essential role in communities across Ireland, and volunteers are the backbone of these services. As a result of the pandemic, we’ve had a major decline in volunteer numbers in youth groups in every corner of the country and we would love to see these volunteers return, but equally we would love new people to get involved.  

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“We know many people have seen the true value of their local community over the past two years and perhaps they may be thinking about giving back and becoming a volunteer. It’s clear from the stories of volunteers the great sense of purpose that volunteering offers and we hope this campaign inspires people to take action and get involved so that we can rebuild our safe and secure spaces for young people.”

NYCI is calling for people (aged 18 years and older) with all kinds of experience and skills to sign up and get involved with volunteering for their local youth groups. To find out more about youth work volunteering and opportunities, visit the webpage at www.youth.ie/community-is-you 

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