Valentine O'Kelly from Bundoran in Co. Donegal has captured the hearts of the members of her community with the level of time and assistance she has given to others in need. Val has been a volunteer with Foróige’s Ballyshannon/Bundoran Neighbourhood Youth Project (NYP) since it started operating over 12 years ago.
We are so thankful to a group of volunteers from IBM who donned their overalls on Saturday 20th April
Foróige has embraced evaluation! Young people are benefiting from their engagement in our clubs and programmes.The outcomes that young people are gaining are tangible, realistic and worthwhile. This is great news for us as staff and volunteers, great news for our young people and great news for our funders. All of the time you invest working with young people is paying off. Young people are doing better because of the time you give and now we have real results that back up our work. The time that young people voluntarily spend with us does lead to better outcomes for them.
I’ve been a volunteer youth leader with Foróige quite literally since the day I turned 18. A few weeks prior to turning 18, a few of my friends and I met with our nearest Foróige Regional Youth Officer, Bríd. We took part in the appropriate training and so began our Foróige journey! My mother, Tracey, has been working with young people in both a voluntary and professional capacity since I started secondary school. So working with young people is something that my family have been involved in for a long time.
I’m passionate about Foróige and all it stands for and strives to achieve. I would love to see every young person in the country benefit from the organisation’s input in some capacity. I believe all our young people, regardless of class or culture, deserve the chance to avail of the opportunities that Foróige can give.
“You have to look at it from the point of view that ‘out of a cottage comes a prince’ – or ‘out of a cottage comes a president’. Somewhere in Ireland there’s a young person who will be a future President or Taoiseach or Minister for Health, and we try and see that and do whatever we can to challenge people to rise to the occasion.”
So says John Sullivan, a Foróige volunteer since 1964
