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Over one hundred students from Lumen Christi College were rewarded recently for their volunteering through the Millennium Volunteers Programme.
The Award Ceremony took place on 26 November at the Guildhall, L'Derry and was the first of its kind in Northern Ireland; Lumen Christi College being the first school to participate in the Millennium Volunteers Schools Award.
Millennium Volunteers is a UK wide initiative designed to promote and recognise sustained volunteering among young people aged 16-24. The Department of Education in Northern Ireland provides funding for the Programme, which is managed and administered by the Volunteer Development Agency.
Students participating in the Schools Award received a certificate which recognises 50 hours of volunteering and can be used as a stepping stone to completing 100 hours of volunteering and receiving an Award of Excellence. Students in Years 13 and 14 took part in a wide variety of activities in their local community including; providing homework and after school clubs; volunteering at Altnagelvin Hospital, Longtower Senior Citizens Club and in their local Church; visiting people in the local community and training local primary school pupils in Life Saving Skills.
Speaking at the Award Ceremony guest speaker Mary Bradley MLA, member of the Stormont Education Committee said:
I would hope that the dedication shown here tonight by these young people will be a shining example of how and why volunteering is a powerful vehicle for both the individual offering their time and energy and the recipient benefiting from this. It is all too easy to dismiss all young people as being uncaring and insensitive, however, it is evenings such as this that continually renews my faith in the younger members of our society and goes a long way to prove that our youth are indeed a highly valuable commodity that needs nurturing not punishing.”
Wendy Osborne OBE, Director of the Volunteer Development Agency congratulated the young people receiving certificates saying, “You are blazing the trail for those young people coming behind. You have all made a tremendous contribution to your local community and are wonderful role models for other young people.”
Anne Love, Volunteer Services Manager with the Western Health and Social Care Trust, based at Altnagelvin Hospital where some of the students volunteered said, “Volunteering is about giving back to your community … so many of my volunteers have commented that they have gained so much more from the experience than they ever expected. Volunteering makes a difference to the lives of others, but collectively, by bringing the values of your volunteering with you wherever we go in life, you can make the difference in creating a new, better society for the future.”
Following on from the great success of the Millennium Volunteers Schools Award at Lumen Christi College, the Volunteer Development Agency hopes to replicate the programme with a number of schools across Northern Ireland. If you would like more information on Millennium Volunteers go to www.volunteering-ni.org
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