“I would like to thank my colleagues in Monaghan Volunteer Centre for all their help in recruiting volunteers for Monaghan Integrated Development’s meals on wheels service in South Monaghan. MID began this service in April 2020 as a response to Covid 19 as no such service existed in the area. Without the volunteers recruited by the Volunteer Centre, the service simply could not run. These volunteers deliver hot meals daily to vulnerable, older adults, living alone in the community with no family support network nearby. In many cases, the volunteers are the only social contact the client has and they take the time in a safe way to make sure the older person is ok. To date, we have sourced nine volunteers from the Volunteer Centre who have delivered meals to over 25 clients, with more volunteers interested in becoming involved to meet growing demand.
I would highly recommend the services of Monaghan Volunteer Centre to any community group looking for new members. The service is easy to access, quick to respond and will definitely help find the right volunteer for your group.”
Regina Byrne, Community Outreach Worker at MID
“The prompt and efficient support from Monaghan Volunteer Centre has been of enormous benefit to Truagh Development Association’s Community Services Programme (CSP) since the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The CSP is based at the Blackwater Valley Centre, Knockconan, Emyvale and has been in operation since 2008.
Since 13th March 2020 the focus of our social enterprise had to change radically and subsequently volunteer support had to be ramped up dramatically to ensure we could meet the emerging needs of the community in Truagh and the wider north Monaghan area.
As our building is closed to the public the new way of operating is to bring the services to the people. Monaghan Volunteer Centre was able to source suitable volunteer drivers at short notice to help us deliver hot meals and care packages to older and vulnerable people cocooning in Truagh and the wider north Monaghan area.
We envisage that the CSP will continue to rely on Monaghan Volunteer Centre to source volunteer drivers for the foreseeable future particularly this autumn and into Spring 2021 due to the pandemic. For example, we are already going to lose three volunteers who, happily for them, return to work next week but we are confident that the MVC will help us find new volunteers to replace them.”
Fiona McCaffrey Jones
Manager of Truagh Development Association CSP
Failte Isteach students and volunteer tutors
“We use the Volunteer Centre to connect with volunteer tutors for our conversational English classes. We are a relatively new group and the Volunteer Centre has been very helpful in connecting us with people who have become tutors for our classes. For every extra volunteer we have in our group we can provide tuition for four more students. So the Volunteer Centre is a vital resource for us in recruiting new tutors and enabling us increase and improve the service we provide.”
Angela Cassidy, coordinator of Monaghan Failte Isteach
The Monaghan Volunteer Centre offers a vital role within the community. It offers crucial services such as Garda Vetting and the advertising of roles for volunteers. Without such an easy and efficient service, my job would be much more complicated. Staff at the centre are friendly, approachable and easy to talk to. The role they provide in advertising for volunteers is of vital importance, as it exposes my service to hundreds of people who may not know we exist. The Monaghan Volunteer Centre is imperative in the smooth running of my service.”
Anne Breen, manager of Cairde Activation Centre
“Our first and most important hurdle was Garda Vetting, the team at Monaghan Volunteer Centre supported and guided us through this essential legal requirement…The support, help, understanding and patience given to us along with the training ensured that our Garda Vetting was fully compliant with in a short space of time…
The group has 100 youth members, all love scouting and come week in, week out. They would all have lost out on the fabulous opportunities scouting has to offer, without the services and support provided to us by the Garda Vetting team at Monaghan Volunteer Centre. “
Stuart Short, 2nd Cavan Scouts
