| 10,000 New Volunteers Register with Volunteer Centres in 2009 |
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| Projects - Volunteer Centre | |||
| Written by Ian O'Flynn | |||
| Monday, 05 October 2009 11:56 | |||
 Volunteer Centres Ireland have registered a record 10,000 volunteers so far this year.The recession has seen a massive increase in the number of Irish people seeking to volunteer in their local communities. New figures released Monday 5th of October show that the amount of citizens who are prepared to give up their time to help others has more than doubled over the past year. For the first time a large number of young people are citing the fact that they have recently been made redundant as a primary reason for volunteering. The release of these new figures from Volunteer Centres Ireland (VCI) coincide with the latest statistics from the CSO, which shows that more than 440,000 people are now on the Live Register. The standardized unemployment rate has climbed to 12.4%. A total of 10,330 individuals have registered to volunteer with Volunteer Centres Ireland – the state supported national volunteering organisation. This represents an increase of more than 115 per cent on last year. There has also been a large increase in the number of not-for-profit organisations looking for volunteers to assist them. This figure now stands at 3,810 representing an increase of more than 1,200 over the past year. More than 3,100 individuals have already been placed in volunteering opportunities which will generate almost 300,000 hours of volunteering in 2009. This directly equates to nearly 260 full-time equivalent workers and almost €4 million in earnings. These figures were released days after the biggest yet national day of volunteering Give it a Swirl saw thousands of people volunteer in once off, hands on projects across the country.
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