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Volunteer Ireland has arrived!
Volunteer Centres Ireland and Volunteering Ireland have now merged to create Volunteer Ireland, a single national volunteering organisation for Ireland. The services and supports for volunteering previously offered by two organisations will now be delivered by one: from the Ireland InVOLved Awards to the National Day of Volunteering.
The creation of Volunteer Ireland is great news for volunteering in Ireland. Combining the skills, strengths and talents of VCI and VI into a single national volunteering organisation will mean we can build on the considerable achievements of our two organisations to date and increase the services and supports for volunteering in Ireland. As a bigger, better and unified organisation for volunteering, Volunteer Ireland will be far better placed to respond to the needs of volunteering in Ireland. 2011 is European Year of Volunteering and Volunteer Ireland will be a fantastic legacy of it for Ireland.
The focus of Volunteer Ireland will be to create an enabling environment for volunteering, to develop an ethos of volunteerism across all sectors of society and to be an independent and legitimate voice for volunteering. Working with our local Volunteer Centres, volunteer-involving organisations and volunteers, Volunteer Ireland will be a powerful advocate for volunteering in Ireland.
As of from last week, all staff and volunteers in Volunteer Centres Ireland and Volunteering Ireland transferred to Volunteer Ireland and we are all looking forward to working together to create a single, great volunteering organisation for Ireland. For the moment, of course, it's 'business as usual'. However, we look forward to developing our new organisation over the coming months and to sharing our progress with you.
Yvonne McKenna
www.volunteer.ie
