VSI offers a wide range of volunteer opportunities to young people. We provide support for all young people to participate and to benefit from volunteering with us, including those young people with fewer opportunities (including young people with disabilities).
We work with young people directly as well as with youth workers and organisations to support young people to participate in our projects. We provide thorough and comprehensive support to young people throughout their involvement with us. Many of our projects are funded and we can provide extra support and funding to enable young people with fewer opportunities to participate. Our self-funded projects are low cost.
We work with young people 18+ and their youth workers to:
- promote the social inclusion of young people
- raise young people’s awareness of their rights, peace and social justice, sustainable development, the environment and intercultural understanding
- foster young people’s active citizenship
- promote young people’s civic engagement
- develop young people’s skills and competencies and enhance their employability.
The projects we offer are:
- individual
- group
- year-round
- 1 week to 12 months
- in Ireland, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America
Topics include:
- community work
- human rights
- anti-racism
- environmental protection
- animal welfare
- arts and culture
No experience or specific skills are required to volunteer on our projects and no fundraising is required.
Inclusion is important to us and we work on increasing inclusion through volunteering. VSI works with all young people in Ireland including those who are vulnerable and marginalised such as young people who are experiencing poverty, young people with disabilities, migrants and asylum-seekers. We work with young people on an individual basis and in groups. We also bring young people together through our programmes to form diverse groups to promote their integration.
We would like to tell you more about our opportunities for young people!
Please contact Eimear in the VSI office for more info, we can easily come to meet you or the young people that you work with to give you more info and to discuss our projects.
Mateja and Joe (VSI) and Ger (Kildare Youth Services) delivering a workshop on the ESC programme
Examples of VSI opportunities:
- Individual and group funded volunteer projects
- Long-term, 2 to 12 months duration, for all young people
- Short-term, 2 weeks to 2 months, designed for young people with fewer opportunities
We can ‘tailor’ European Solidarity Corps (ESC) projects for individual young people or groups of young people. We can apply for extra funding to enable young people with fewer opportunities to participate, for example: for extra preparation, equipment, passports, personal assistants and extra costs for wheelchair access.
For more info on the programme:
European Solidarity Corps (EU-funded)