The Volunteer Activation Fund

Localise has received support from various funding initiatives to enhance youth volunteering efforts. For instance, in 2024, Localise was awarded funding from the Public Service Innovation Fund. This funding enabled the development of the National Youth Volunteering Portfolio (MyVP), a digital platform designed to help young people record their volunteering achievements, reflect on their experiences, and plan for the future.

Through projects funded by the Volunteer Activation Fund, Localise empowers young people aged 11 to 25 to become proactive citizens and community leaders, through increasing the number of clubs it has.An example of Localise project is the Ballyrunners project. Ballyrunners is a high support, low threshold skills-based programme that aims to positively engage participants in constructive activities and change their attitudes and behaviours. The Localise Ballyrunners group decided to visit the Mater Hospital, in particular 3 wards: St. Peter’s McGivney Wing; and Veronica’s Ward). They also prepared some hampers for the staff and some goodie bags for the patients they visited. At the end of the project Localise helped some of them with opening their own National Volunteering Portfolio in order to record the project they created.

Another example is with unaccompanied and adult migrants of YES/MAP programme. Participants decided to help kids with autism in one of the Mater Respite House, they painted 3 walls of the house garden using calming colours and bringing some happiness. They also decided to create some care packages and cards for the next group of unaccompanied migrants in order to make them feel welcome and wanted. They had a lovely graduation in DCU after the project.

The Fund allows Localise to increase its number of adult volunteers, which impacts directly on the amount of young people we engage.  We firmly believe that volunteering could provide a series of opportunities to young people and this is why – also thanks to funding such as the volunteer activation one, we keep providing easily accessible volunteering opportunities to every young person in Ireland.