Workplace Wellbeing: Volunteering becomes its own reward

Lending a hand to those in need can give back just as much, sometimes offering volunteers the opportunity to discover their career path or explore a new work direction.

Fully qualified electrician Emma McAree pictured on her family's farm outside Emyvale, Co. Monaghan. Emma has been volunteering with the Niall Mellon trust since she was 15. Photo Lorraine Teevan

CENSUS 2022 revealed that 711,379 people in Ireland are volunteers. The unpaid work they do on behalf of others makes a huge difference to people’s lives, including their own.

Volunteering connects people to their community and helps them make new friends and expand their social network. It’s been proven to be good for physical and mental health, by combating depression and providing people with a sense of purpose. It also allows people to explore their interests and can even enable them to gain experience in new sectors, opening the door to new careers.

We meet four people whose professional lives were changed by volunteering.

Emma McAree always knew her job would involve working with her hands. But it wasn’t until the now 24-year-old from Emyvale, Monaghan, went to South Africa with Mellon Educate — formerly known as the Niall Mellon Township Trust — that she got a clearer idea of what that job might be.

Mellon Educate is an Irish charity founded 23 years ago. Since then, some 10,000 Irish volunteers have travelled to South Africa, built homes for 250,000 homeless people, and improved schools and other educational facilities in the country.

“My dad started volunteering with the charity in 2010, and as soon as I was 15 and old enough to go with him, I did,” says McAree.

She remembers that first trip in 2016, when they spent a week in a township in Cape Town building classrooms, toilet blocks, and playgrounds.

“I loved it so much that I’ve gone back every year since, except the one when I did my Leaving Cert,” she says.

She regards the time she spends in South Africa as the highlight of her year and says that “when the time came to choose a career, the work I did with the charity massively informed my choice. Having worked as part of a team on-site played a big part in my decision to become an electrician”.

McAree qualified in October 2024 and is now a maintenance technician. But she still volunteers for Mellon Educate.

“I’m going back for my seventh trip in November,” she says. “I gain so much from it. Seeing the joy on the kids’ faces, knowing you are helping to improve lives, the unbreakable connections you make with fellow volunteers, it stays with you, and it’s all part of an experience that expands your understanding of who you think you are and what you think you are capable of. It definitely contributes to the person — and the electrician — I am today.”

Dr Keith Kennedy

When he was 10, his younger sister broke her arm.

“I remember her arm bending in the wrong direction and my parents rushing to get her to hospital and how helpless I felt in that situation,” he says. “I think that influenced my decision to sign up for St John’s Ambulance when they visited our school a few weeks later.”

St John’s Ambulance is a volunteer organisation that provides first aid training and assistance in the community, and it was through them that Kennedy got a chance to study paramedic science: “I was actually studying occupational therapy in Trinity at the time and completed my final year there while also attending classes for my first year in paramedic science in UCD [University College Dublin].”

That wasn’t to be the end of his studies. Kennedy had always dreamt of studying medicine, but hadn’t got enough points in his Leaving Cert. His experience as a paramedic revived this dream and spurred him on to become a mature medical student at University College Cork and he graduated as an emergency medicine doctor in 2012.

He remained involved with St John’s Ambulance throughout this time and continues to volunteer with the charity to this day. He also volunteers with the Critical charity, which works with the National Ambulance Service to send doctors and trained community first responders to medical emergencies in their local area.

Kennedy considers it a privilege to be able to give in this way.

“I feel I get so much back,” he says. “There’s such a sense of community in volunteering and an opportunity to learn and hone skills. Personally, it’s opened up so many paths I might never otherwise have walked down.”

Simone Coughlan

“You have to do a certain amount of work experience as part of the course, and I wanted to do mine in the disability sector,” says the 38-year-old.

“I was placed in Cork City’s Doras training centre, which is run by Horizons and which helps young disabled people find ways to earn a living, connect with their community, and continue living full lives after they leave school.”

She spent four weeks working with Doras that first year but says “it wasn’t enough”. So she asked if she could go back to volunteer during the summer holidays, and did that for the next three years.

“The work I did involved supporting senior supervisors in delivering classes and accompanying service users on outings,” she says.

She found it enormously fulfilling.

“It helped with my confidence and communication skills,” she says. “It also taught me that we’re all differently abled and should all be empowered to live full lives. I so enjoyed encouraging and supporting the service users to do just that.”

By the time she graduated, Coughlan knew she would like to be a senior supervisor at Doras and “jumped for joy” when a position was advertised. She made it through the selection process this summer.

“Working alongside young people with disabilities to help them fulfil their goals and dreams is such a great job for me,” she says. “And I might never have been aware of it were it not for volunteering.”

Mary Doherty

The 57-year-old spent decades rising through the ranks of An Garda Síochána to become a detective inspector. She also raised three children, one of whom is Aaron, who is now 17 and has Down syndrome.

Doherty became involved with Down Syndrome Ireland, and her involvement with the charity intensified when Aaron was due to start school.

“We were told he didn’t qualify for the supports he needed, so I joined with other parents of children with Down syndrome to campaign for our children to get that support,” she says.

Her campaigning led to her being nominated as president of the charity, a position she held for six years. During those years, she attended countless meetings with parents, met many young people with Down syndrome, and lobbied the government on their behalf. That work brought out a different side to Doherty.

“It gave me a softer, more human perspective,” she says. “I started to lean into that in my everyday job by advocating for people more, especially the guards I was responsible for on the front line.”

A serious car crash in 2021 turned her busy life upside down. She has spent the intervening years rehabilitating but still suffers permanent nerve damage and pain.

Her injuries meant she had to retire from An Garda Síochána but she hasn’t given up on work entirely.

“Everything depends on how my injuries play out in the future, but I’d like to think the accident isn’t the end of everything for me,” she says. “I have so much knowledge and experience, and I enjoyed advocating for people with Down Syndrome Ireland. I’ve retrained as a life coach and would love to go on to empower more people to help themselves.”