Volunteerism was high on the agenda in Heywood this week as the secondary school hosted its first ever Societies and Voluntary Organisations (SocVol) Day.
Organised by the Young Social Innovators Team (YSI), in conjunction with teacher Fiona Brennan and the help of the Laois Volunteer Centre, the event proved a big success.
Local societies, clubs and voluntary groups came to the school on Monday meet students as part of nurturing volunteering.
There were 43 different orgainsations present with more than 50 originally expressing interest in being present.
Last year, the TY YSI team came up with the great idea of rolling out a SocVol (societies & voluntary groups) day in the school for the students.
Their team “Youth Connect” were national finalists in the YSI awards at Croke Park last May and have since been invited by YSI to elevate their project this year.
The Soc Vol day wanted to create a link space for the school community to engage with their surrounding community groups.
Not only linking communities, but also promoting positive and meaningful engagement for the students with people face to face in their community.
This has highlighted to the students the important work of volunteers and social clubs/societies and also demonstrated to them that they can get involved and be important actors in their own society.
The YSI group also found out through their research that meaningfully connecting with community can really improve wellbeing. I-Vol Ireland survey noting that 60% of volunteers had an increased sense of belonging and less lonely.
So overall SocVol day intended to engage young people in their community, link them into volunteering opportunities and needs in their community, create a link in a tangible way with positive role models within their community and promote wellbeing in engagement in such an event.
The goal of the YSI team is to see this idea expand amongst other school in Laois and maybe even nationally.
They really feel it is an important connection that needs to be facilitated in the modern-day world to keep the sense of community and connection alive.
On the day there was a SocVol bingo where students had to visit and engage with at least nine stands to be in with a chance to win a prize- to encourage meaningful engagement.
The YSI group also collected names of students interested in joining a SocVol mailing list that will send information out to them throughout the year from all the organizations involved on the day.
It is important to the YSI team that they keep the momentum going gathered at SocVol day and keep the connections alive with their mailing list throughout the year.
Heywood CS is very grateful to the fantastic societies, clubs and voluntary organizations within our county for giving their precious time to come and engage in such a meaningful and enthusiastic way with the student body.
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