January 2022 has already passed us by, but that doesn’t mean that our resolutions have to disappear with it. 

We’ve posted before about how volunteering can benefit our careers and help us to gain new skills, but it’s also important to highlight how rewarding volunteering can be in terms of our mental and physical health.

Generally, our resolutions are related to improving our overall well being. Whether it’s improving our mental or physical health, everyone has some area of their life that they want to improve upon. As the year moves forward, it’s really important not to lose sight of that. Wellbeing is important any time of the year!

So if you’ve found yourself letting your new year's resolutions fall by the wayside, don’t worry. Volunteering can be a perfect pathway to self-improvement, and it is a fantastic way of minding your wellbeing.

Emotionally Rewarding

Volunteering is extremely emotionally rewarding. Have you ever heard of the ‘helper’s high’? It’s a psychological theory that was coined in the 1980s, and has been verified by a number of studies since. Essentially, it’s been proven that the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitters, such as oxytocin, that are produced when we volunteer, give money, or various other ‘pro-social’ activities,, can actually become addictive.

So it’s scientifically proven that volunteering can lift your mood tremendously. We all know that the last two years have been particularly hard in terms of maintaining our mental wellbeing. 

Social Connections

We all know that maintaining a strong social circle is integral to building long-lasting mental wellbeing. However, we also know that life can often make this more difficult than you would think. People move, find themselves busy with their family or their job - and Covid-19 made socializing even more difficult than it was before. A healthy friendship group takes effort to maintain, and volunteering can be a huge help with this. 

Volunteering helps us to meet new people, and to deepen our connections with those in our local community, all in an uplifting environment. No matter what kind of volunteer work you’re doing, you will be working with a team of people who are all working towards the common goal of giving back to your community. Knowing that you can contribute to this is a very uplifting feeling. Not to mention, volunteering can help you to make new friends, or even strengthen old ones. If you have a friend who’s been thinking about volunteering, why not start together? 

Physical Wellbeing

So, we’ve looked at the benefits of volunteering for our emotional health, but what about our physical health? This isn’t something that immediately springs to mind when you think about the benefits of volunteering, but there certainly is potential for improving your physical wellbeing while giving back to your local community.

If you’re interested in sports, it would make perfect sense to offer your skills and knowledge as a coach for a local team, or perhaps a Special Olympics club. And if you don’t, there are still ample opportunities to get outside and get some fresh air. Tidy Towns, walking and recreational clubs, beach cleanups, and even Scouts and Brownies - these organisations are always looking for new volunteers, and they require lots of physical activity and time spent outside. 

Time spent outdoors, focusing on something you care about, alongside other people who are motivated by the same thing as you - the physical and mental benefits are immediate, and they are incredible. 

If you’d like to find an opportunity like this, you can do so using i-vol.ie. On the home page, click the ‘More Options’ button, then input your county, then scroll down and select the ‘Sports/Outdoor activities/Coaching’ option. This will show you all of the outdoors volunteering opportunities in your county.

So if you feel that you’ve fallen off with your new year’s resolutions, don’t give up! Any time is the right time to work towards improving your wellbeing, and there are always voluntary organisations who are searching for people who can help them.

So happy 2022, and happy volunteering!

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Louth Volunteer Leader Awards Profile - Ann Shortt

The 2021 Louth Volunteer Leader Awards are coming up, and this week we will be profiling our three 2020 winners. We hope their stories will inspire you to nominate someone in your life who has made a special impact on your volunteering journey.

Ann Shortt is from the Drogheda branch of the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland, and she was the 2020 winner of the Drogheda and South Loud Volunteer Leader Award in 2020. Today, she’s going to share some of her experiences, motivations, wisdom and advice for volunteers.

Ann has been the driving force of the Alzheimer's Organization for 20 years, and has been described as ‘nothing less than a human dynamo’.

Ann’s Volunteering Journey

Ann got involved with the Alzheimer’s Association as her dad had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Her first person insight into the effect dementia has on people has driven her to contribute so greatly to the community.

Ann never really considered herself a volunteer leader. She was, in her words, ‘just a person who got people to come and do things for them.’ She started with participating in the mini-marathon, where she rounded up a bus load of her friends to raise money!

This special quality of hers proved to be invaluable for the Alzheimer’s Society. One thing led to another, and soon she became the go-to fundraiser of the group for all kinds of events. Her volunteering journey expanded beyond just her circle of friends, and became something which put her in touch with the community at large. Twenty-three years later, she’s still with the organization, now in a leadership role.

For several years, Ann has been working towards the provision of a new, purpose-built Alzheimer’s day care centre. She led a fundraising campaign to cover the one million euro cost of the building. We’re very happy to report that Ann and the rest of the volunteer’s efforts paid off, and construction has been underway since 2020.

Naturally, Ann is hard at work preparing the new building, so she spends most of her days making sure that it’s going to be up to scratch for patients with dementia. When she’s not doing that, she continues her fundraising work. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new layer of challenge to this work, so she’s had to think outside of the box when it comes to brainstorming new fundraising ideas.

Tips for Volunteer Leaders

Ann has some tips for those who are in volunteer leadership positions. The biggest challenge is getting the right people for the role. She says you should branch out and approach volunteers with an open mind - inclusivity is so important in volunteering. People from all walks of life can contribute so much to any organisation, and it’s so important to give them the opportunity.

Winning the LVLA

Ann said she was ‘like a big kid’ the day she heard she had won the award. She would usually be the one putting people forward for awards, so having it reciprocated was amazing. ‘You don’t do these things for awards, but it was nice. I was grinning from ear to ear for a week!’

Nominating a Leader for the 2021 LVLA

Ann encourages volunteers to put forward leaders that they feel have made their experience brighter.

“It’s something you do for the love of it, but it’s nice to recognise somebody’s achievements and good work. You should go for it. I wouldn’t have recognised that I have done all this work. It’s nice to give back. Give your volunteer leader that little bit of a treat, we all need a lift every so often. Show them that you appreciate what you do, and nominate them.’

2021 Louth Volunteer Leader Awards

It’s time to find our next round of legendary leaders in Louth. The Louth Volunteer Leader Awards will be taking place on November 5th, and they are the perfect opportunity for volunteers to show their gratitude for the leaders who have supported them.

We know there are loads of these legendary leaders in Louth - let them know their community notices what they are doing and appreciates it!

There are five nomination categories - Drogheda/South Louth, Mid Louth, Dundalk/North Loud, Leading Young Volunteers (county wide), and the COVID-19 category (countywide.) You can nominate multiple people in any category. All nominees will receive a certificate and thank you card and five nominees will be shortlisted for awards.

Nominations close October 19th at midnight, so show your appreciation and get those nominations in!

Happy Volunteering!

The 2021 Louth Volunteer Leader Awards are coming up, and this week we will be profiling our three 2020 winners. We hope their stories will inspire you to nominate someone in your life who has made a special impact on your volunteering journey.

Mary Murtagh is the founder, leading member, and current chairperson of Louth Tidy Towns Together and she has spearheaded the organisation's fundraising events, including Louth Looking Good, the annual Table Quiz and other events designed to promote the Tidy Towns movement such as Trashion Fashion and Eco-Tribes.

She was the winner of the Ardee and Mid Louth 2020 Volunteer Leader Award.

Mary’s Volunteer Journey

To Mary, volunteer leadership is the natural progression of volunteering. ‘You’d never ask someone to do something you wouldn’t do yourself’, she says. Mary became involved with Louth Tidy Towns through her work in Louth County Council’s Environment sector.

When she moved on from the job, she was approached by the members of Louth Tidy Towns to join. She says that coming onboard as a volunteer was an eye opener - what she thought she knew about tidy towns from her work changed greatly when she was out there on the ground picking up litter. It gave her a great appreciation for the amount of time that a Tidy Towns volunteer contributes.

Mary’s Tips for Volunteer Leaders

Mary has lots of wise words and advice for anyone who is in a volunteer leader position. She says that the single most important aspects of coordinating a group of volunteers is identifying the different skills that volunteers within the group possess. She recommends getting the volunteers involved in the elements of the work that they’re interested in, and that they are good at. ‘If everyone does a little bit of work that they’re good at, then no one has to do a huge amount of work,’ she says.

Mary’s work is about coming together with other volunteers and fostering a sense of pride in their community. ‘Our first love is for our own local community - that’s where I do my physical volunteering on the ground. Whatever skills I can bring to bring the best out in them, to identify things that they can do in their community.’

She also values giving the volunteers recognition for their work. For this she particularly recommends social media - it gives you the opportunity to mention people by name and give them credit. This is especially important in an organisation like Tidy Towns, where the work is so seamless that it can sometimes go unnoticed.

Her work with Louth Tidy Towns Together is largely about sharing her experiences. Many of the projects that she has undertaken can be adapted to different communities. It’s this generosity and willingness to share that has made her one of the most experienced and well-known Tidy Towns volunteers in the entire country!

Winning the LVLA

For Mary, winning the LVLA was all about recognition - not just for her, but for the collaborative approach of Tidy Towns more generally. Sometimes ‘It was an acknowledgement of the work that goes into it by so, so many people in the TT Family.’

Nominating a Leader for the 2021 LVLA

Mary strongly encourages volunteers to nominate someone in their volunteer life for the award. ‘Use the opportunity! Get the recognition for the work that your team is doing. Use it as a way to motivate others to become involved, and to get your message out. Nominate, nominate, nominate!’

2021 Louth Volunteer Leader Awards

It’s time to find our next round of legendary leaders in Louth. The Louth Volunteer Leader Awards will be taking place on November 5th, and they are the perfect opportunity for volunteers to show their gratitude for the leaders who have supported them.

We know there are loads of these legendary leaders in Louth - let them know their community notices what they are doing and appreciates it!

There are five nomination categories - Drogheda/South Louth, Mid Louth, Dundalk/North Loud, Leading Young Volunteers (county wide), and the COVID-19 category (countywide.) You can nominate multiple people in any category. All nominees will receive a certificate and thank you card and five nominees will be shortlisted for awards.

Nominations close October 19th at midnight, so show your appreciation and get those nominations in!

Happy Volunteering!