About the Volunteering Strategy

The Department has begun work to develop a Volunteering Strategy for Northern Ireland. The new Volunteering Strategy will aim to align activities across government, the voluntary sector and other stakeholders to re-energise and increase levels of volunteering.

It is envisaged that the Strategy will help create the conditions that will enable volunteering to flourish. At this early stage its aims may include:

We established a Volunteering Strategy Steering Group to advise on the Strategy.

We have funded research into volunteering in 2007 to inform the Strategy. In September 2007 the findings were published by the Volunteer Development Agency in the It’s all about time report.

The Department, working with the Volunteer Development Agency, also held a number of workshops with volunteers, organisations that involve volunteers and other stakeholders. These workshops were to inform thinking on the Strategy from an early stage.

A consultation document: Join In, Get Involved: Build a Better Future - A Consultation Paper on a Volunteering Strategy for Northern Ireland was published in July 2009.  A public consultation ran from 2 July 2009 to 6 November 2009.

There were 237 written responses to the consultation document.  A range of public consultations took place across Northern Ireland as well as a number of tailored events.  Overall 350 people attended consultation events.  

In February 2011 DSD published Your Response to Join In, Get Involved:Build a Better Future - A consultation paper on a Volunteering Strategy for Northern Ireland (Word 410KB).  This report set out a summary of responses made by respondents in the public consultation and the response by DSD.

The final Volunteering Strategy will be published in 2011.

If you have any queries on the Volunteering Strategy please contact the Voluntary & Community Unit