International Volunteer Day (IVD), Friday December 5th, has been designated by the United Nations since 1985. It offers a dedicated opportunity to celebrate volunteerism in all its facets and to pay special tribute to people’s participation in making a difference at local, national and international level. It is a day for volunteers, and volunteer organisations, to raise awareness of, and gain understanding for, the contribution they make to their communities. For 5th December, people around the world will celebrate IVD with parades, conferences, exhibitions, workshops and volunteer recognition events.
In Kerry Volunteer Centre we will be excitedly counting down to International Volunteer Day in two very distinct ways on Thursday December 4th. Firstly with a Volunteer Fair oragnised in conjunction with the Institute of Technology Tralee from 11am -2pm and later at the Volunteer Ireland Awards ceremony in Dublin where we will be rooting for the 3 Kerry Volunteers shortlisted for a Volunteer Ireland Award!!
On International Volunteer Day, Friday December 5th Kerry Volunteer Centre will be launching the first edition of Volunteering Matters, a monthly electronic newsletters for all things that matter to Volunteering, Volunteers and the Community and the Voluntary Sector in Kerry. Its launch online at www.volunteerkerry.ie will be accompanied by a wonderful Valuing Volunteers hamper sponsored by CH Chemists available to be won via our Facebook page.
What will your organisation be doing to celebrate International Volunteer Day? Many not-for-profit organisations in Kerry, in Ireland and beyond would find it impossible to carry out their work and delivery their services without volunteers. Recognising the efforts of Volunteers on IVD gives you and your Volunteers a feeling of accomplishment and appreciation. Designed to thank volunteers and stimulate a greater awareness of their contribution, International Volunteer Day is already marked in more than half the countries of the world.
International Volunteer Day is the perfect time for an organisation to express gratitude to its volunteers. Recognising volunteers can be as simple as showing them your appreciation on a day-to-day basis. A regular and sincere thank you is still the best way to build a good recognition program. This kind of recognition is really powerful, as praising work at the time it takes place and treating volunteers as important members of the team gives them a real sense of achievement and enhances the personal satisfaction they get from volunteering.
Recognition can take many forms and one of the most important aspects is to understand what kind of recognition volunteers value individually. Some volunteers love the big yearly event, while others find it embarrasing, or don’t care for it at all. Try and vary the ways you give recognition with lots of small acknowledgements regularly and the occasional big celebration. Things like birthday, anniversary and ‘life event’ cards personally written and signed can mean so much and cost very little. Celebrating International Volunteer Day enables acknowledgment of volunteers and lets them know that others value what they do.
