FOR two hours on Christmas Day, Irvinestown's Healthy Living Centre will open its doors to the lonely and vulnerable, serving Christmas lunch and providing festive entertainment. The cooks, servers, washer uppers and singers will all give up their time voluntarily, while many others will donate and provide food for the occasion.
This is just one example of community spirit that exists in the Fermanagh town. As well as organisations like the Scouts, the amateur dramatics clubs, community choir, GAA club and the annual Lady of the Lake Festival, all of which are run by volunteers, the town's community-run Arc Healthy Living Centre provides activities that wouldn't survive without the contribution of a huge band of people who freely give up their time to helping others.
The Arc, who believe in the philosophy of 'helping the community help themselves', is managed by chief executive Jenny Irvine, who says volunteering is part of the history of Irvinestown.
“Our community has worked consistently and in partnership for over 100 years to help itself," she says. Volunteering in the area is documented as far back as 1908, with the formation of the Irvinestown’s Fairs and Markets Trustees – a cross-community group of 14 elected volunteers who purchased lands and property in the area that were surplus following the government introduction of the Wyndham Land Act of 1903, which effectively abolished the landlord system on the island of Ireland.
"They brought electricity to the area before most small towns. They would have been involved in bringing jobs to the area and they built social housing in the 30, 40s and 50s,” explains Jenny.
Although forward-thinking, the success of the trustees' lobbying for social housing manifested itself in growing social problems within the Sallys Wood estate, once recognised as one of the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.
The group, which formed the Itec (Irvinestown Trustee Enterprise Company Ltd) in the early 90s, supported the development of the Irvinestown Community Partnership, an umbrella organisation for 36 local voluntary and community groups active in north Fermanagh, and employed a development worker to address social issues in Irvinestown.
This first community enterprise worker was a woman called Margaret Wilson and although her time in the area was all too short – Margaret died of cancer in her 40s – it certainly had an impact.
"She brought social partners together and recognised they all had similar concerns – such as crime, addiction and lack of community transport,” says Jenny.
Margaret’s work is still remembered today in the Margaret Wilson Awards, which were set up as her legacy, celebrating the work carried out by individuals within her community.
This year's winner of the Margaret Wilson Perpetual Award for Outstanding Voluntary Endeavour was Eileen Kearney, who was nominated by Irvinestown Scouts for her work with the Beavers. As well as promoting the confidence and interpersonal skills of her young Scouts, Eileen has also volunteered over the past 18 years with the Guide Dogs for the Blind, the Riding for the Disabled Assoication and has been chairwoman and secretary of the Irvinestown Women's Group.
Like many volunteers, she is humble about her contribution.
"You get out what you put in and the enjoyment of seeing the fun the children are having make it worthwhile for me," says Eileen, who would encourage others to consider volunteering.
"If you get the opportunity to volunteer, take it, because you will be greatly rewarded by the enjoyment of helping others."
Jenny recognises many others like Eileen who help with transport, catering services and counselling in the Arc.
"Eileen is so typical and modest. People don't see how special they are – and that's special. They certainly don't do it for recognition or awards."
The Arc Centre, based within Sallys Wood, was officially opened in 2001 – the first of 15 Healthy Living Centres now operating in Northern Ireland. The Arc has service-level agreements in place with government for the delivery of a number of health and wellbeing programmes and is also supported by Itec social enterprise, which donates its profits to the charity.
The centre has a wide range of services for the elderly, young families, vulnerable families, addiction services and an on-site childcare facility.
Chit Chat is a phone service for older people living mostly alone, while the Arc's Edge service works with children from five to 16 who are exposed to antisocial behaviour and are at risk of offending.
The Arc Child Contact Centre, which is open on Christmas Eve, is the only accredited child-contact centre in Northern Ireland. It provides a friendly and neutral place where children of separated families can spend time with the parent they no longer live with and sometimes with other family members.
Over the life of the Arc project there have been measurable changes, most notably a drop in antisocial behaviour. In the first year of youth summer provision police call-outs for nuisance behaviour involving young people decreased from an average of 14 per day to two over a two-month period.
Other positive changes include: an increase in educational attainment; decrease in unemployment; rates of breast feeding have increased; rates of adult literacy have increased, there has been a reduction in the number of empty dwellings in the area and the PSNI has reported reduction in community fear of crime.
"In areas of deprivation people nearly want to hold on to their badge as a source of getting funding. "It's not that we are without our problems, but we have been trying hard to work ourselves out of deprivation and people are now proud of where they live,” says Jenny.
The Arc project has been widely acknowledged as an example of transformational change and has hosted local, national and international visits over the past 12 months; this autumn it was named NI Health & Social Care Social Enterprise of the Year.
Jenny believes that listening to the needs of those on the ground through monthly community partnership meetings and helping facilitate individuals to make a positive contribution towards the needs of others is key to its success
"You may think you are doing great work, but you have to listen to what the people are saying. There has been significant change at community level here with everyone taking ownership. Our headquarters are located in the heart of Sallys Wood and have never had a broken window, theft, vandalism or graffiti."
The culture of volunteering in the area seems to have passed on to the next generation, with 14 young people, aged 11-16, volunteering as junior leaders this year in the Arc's two-month summer scheme.
So how do they encourage so many volunteers?
"We simply ask. The reason people don't volunteer is because they aren't asked. Volunteers can be all shapes, sizes and ages. In our addiction service Solace, we have two service reps who engage directly with people with addictions that have been through the programme themselves. They have real empathy because they have been in that place."
And what qualities does Jenny believe someone need to be a volunteer? "If people care, have empathy and are willing, anything else they can be trained in."
