102% Increase in the numbers of people registering to volunteer

19/02/2009

Volunteer Centres Ireland has recorded a 102% increase in volunteers registering in Volunteer Centres across the country, an increase related to the downturn in the economy and the rising rates of unemployment..

Dr Yvonne McKenna, CEO of Volunteer Centres Ireland said "We find that many skilled professionals having recently lost their jobs are turning to volunteering as way of keeping active, using their existing skills and learning new ones. It is also a good opportunity to get work experience in a different sector”.

The service appears to be of particular value to people under 35 who make up more than 66% of registered volunteers while more than half the people who register their interest in volunteering have never volunteer before. When asked about their reasons for volunteering the top three responses include: to ‘give something back’, ‘because I have free time’ or ‘because I want to make a difference’.

“This year we have added “recently made redundant” to the list of reasons for volunteering and this has quickly become one of the top ten reason people want to volunteer. Anecdotal evidence, and the fact that more people are quoting free time as a motivator than last year, suggests that the numbers of unemployed people using our service has increased dramatically.