Giving the gift of time
AS SLIGO PREPARES TO TAKE OVER THE TITLE OF EUROPEAN VOLUNTEER CAPITAL FROM LONDON, SPEAKS TO THE FACE BEHIND THE BID, SLIGO VOLUNTEER CENTRE’S CIARA HERITY
SHE is the face behind Sligo’s successful European Volunteer Capital bid, though it is unlikely Ciara Herity would allow such a title. It was a team effort she says and she is right, but it’s a sin to underestimate the work of the Sligo Volunteer Centre Manager who has helped the organisation reach new heights over the past ten years.
“I was the volunteer centre at the beginning, in that I was the only employee,” Ciara said. “But it just grew and grew. I was doing everything at the beginning but now you have figures like 2,775 volunteers and we work with 259 organisations in Sligo so I couldn’t do all that and do the reporting and the finances too.
“I suppose as the other staff came in I kind of took on that role of reports and overseeing the work plans and strategic plans. It’s not like I worked my way up, more people just came in so I ended up with that.”
Originally from Ransboro, Ciara studied at Trinity College in Dublin where she graduated with a degree in Sociology and Social Policy.
Her career took her to Enniskillen where she worked on a cross border project with North Leitrim Men’s Group and Northern Irish colleges.
Wanting to move home, she counts herself lucky to have been taken on in the development stages of the volunteer centre after Sligo County Council launched the idea in 2006.
Although she was originally just covering maternity leave, Ciara remains a vital member a decade on.
She said: “There was a time when a lot of volunteer centres were set up around the country supported by Volunteer Ireland and there was money available to set up centres and the idea was that there would be a centre in every county. I have been here since the beginning and then we recruited more staff after that so at the moment we have four part- time staff.”
Sligo Volunteer Centre works with not- for- profit groups to support them in their volunteer programmes. Usually, the ask is to get more volunteers and to help groups put systems in
place so that volunteers have quality experiences, but they also promote volunteering for people who are interested while trying to match them up with appropriate opportunities.
Ciara said: “There is generally something for everyone and there are many different reasons why people want to volunteer, different types of availability, sometimes transport can be an issue or something might restrict somebody.
“We promote that an hour a week can really make a difference, or even if you do it once a month there’s opportunities for that as well. We would find that because we have a bank of 2,775 volunteers on our books, these are people that have already said that they are interested in volunteering so it makes sense for groups to come and say ‘ right there is an audience there who have already said they want to volunteer so let’s advertise to them’.”
Ciara added that the centre tends to attract people in the 20 to 35 age bracket.
However, there are many reasons as to why so many people approach the volunteer centre.
“We see a lot of people who maybe as a fall out of the recession lost their job and haven’t got back into things,” Ciara said.
“They have extra support needs in some shape or form and see volunteering as a route to connecting back in. You also see the professional person who is at a stage in their career where they want to give back and they might have very particular skills about marketing or how to develop websites or accountants who want to share that skill. There’s so many different ways.”
According to the volunteer centre manager, there is no typical day at her office. From vetting volunteers, to developing strategic plans, and reporting to the centre’s board of directors, her duties vary on a day- to- day basis.
However, the last 14 months has been a career highlight, from the centre’s application for European Volunteer Capital and its shocking win.
It began when MEP Marian Harkin, who is a patron of the centre, told Ciara about the competition and advised her to apply. With previous winners including major cities like Barcelona and Lisbon, Ciara admits the application was initially a wild shot in the dark. Next thing she knew – she was stood at a podium in Lisbon accepting the honours.
“We put in an application form in September of last year and the announcement was made in Lisbon in the December. We went over to be honest not really thinking that we were going to get it. There were eight other cities of different sizes, including Belfast, Edinburgh and Rome as well as some other small places I hadn’t heard of.
“They announced both London for 2016 and Sligo for 2017 at the one time. When London went up and gave their speech about the Olympics and how the legacy had left, it was a surreal moment as I had to follow it with my speech. It was a complete shock in lots of ways, just because we’re so much smaller than any of the other winners. We didn’t really think that we would.”
Sligo will officially be handed the title from London ( who were 2016 recipients) on December 5 and a local contingent will travel over for a special ceremony. The “opening spectacular” at Knocknarea Arena in January will kick off a year of national and international events staged in the Yeats County.
Ciara said the aim is to celebrate, recognise and inspire volunteers. The centre is currently looking for any sponsorship to help with the costs of being European Volunteer Capital, though the value of volunteering itself cannot be undermined.
Ciara said: “It’s estimated that there are about 7,000 volunteer hours happening every week in Sligo and if you multiply that by the national minimum wage you’re looking at about € 64k of value in Sligo in one week. It’s a huge amount of work that goes along when you think of what these volunteers do.”
She added: “Hopefully we can sell Sligo on a national and international stage and say that it’s a good place to be as people have that community spirit and can come together to make all this stuff happen.”