Joe Graham from Irvinestown has been volunteering for many years, taking on roles in various local groups.

Since finishing his role as President of the Young Farmers’ Club of Ulster in 1997, Joe began volunteering at Irvinestown Boys’ Brigade, of which he is currently Captain, a position he has held for the last 18 years. Joe is also Secretary and Coach for the Devenish Warriors Wheelchair Football Club and Coach in the Fermanagh Lakers Boccia Club.

“There’s quite a lot,” laughed Joe, explaining that he believes volunteering is important as it “gives young people opportunities to be part of society and raise their self-esteem”.

“We provide them with new skills that they wouldn’t normally be given opportunities to do,” added Joe, who went on to highlight the Boys’ Brigade’s badgework scheme: “We would do discovery, challenge, things like that and we put the boys in the direction of the Queen’s Award and President’s Award.”

Joe explained that while completing the Queen’s Award, the boys must volunteer within their church, outside their church and take up new skills.

“You actually find that it helps shape the boys up to be better citizens,” shared Joe, adding that when he asks some of the older Boys’ Brigade members to help out with younger members, they rise to the challenge: “You suddenly realise that when you give them that opportunity, they shine and you are actually giving them that wee bit of responsibility and they don’t mind doing it.”

“It’s making the boys aware of health and safety, child protection and all that there,” noted Joe.

Joe highlighted the importance of child protection when volunteering in youth groups but commented that he finds that quite a lot of volunteers are put off by the responsibility of it. “Child protection is so important and we can’t run without it. You also have to be fully aware if any of the boys have any specific dietary needs or any medical needs. It’s including children with autism or hearing loss or physical difficulties” he said.

Talking about his voluntary work as Coach of the Boccia Club, Joe said: “Every Monday we would take part in the Lakeland Forum, we would have eight to 10 young people with physical and learning difficulties, it’s giving them the opportunity of being unique, of being part of a club and socialising.”

He added: “Then, from a volunteer basis, we try to promote them on to see if we can get them into the league, can we get them to do individual competitions and can we get them to do team competitions.”

Explaining that the Wheelchair Football is quite difficult because there is quite a lot of expense involved in it, Joe noted that the competition chairs range from £3,000 to £8,000: “So we have borrowed quite a lot and we have a small squad of eight people and we take part in the All Ireland League, we didn’t do so great this year but it’s our first year in competition.”

“To me it’s actually getting the boys taking part. This here’s giving young people with a physical difficulty an opportunity to play Wheelchair Football,” added Joe.

Commenting that an “awful lot of time is involved” in volunteering, Joe shared: “At times I’ve thought, ‘I’d love to be sitting in for the night’ but at the same time the rewards outplay that.”

“I’m quite lucky that I’ve a good team around me. Within the church the Reverend Paul Thompson is a star. He would look after the scripture end of Boys’ Brigade but he is so supportive and then I’ve got a good team of leaders around me,” he added.

In the Boys’ Brigade, Joe has found that the boys that complete their Queen’s Award tend to come back and volunteer with the organisation.

“Being a volunteer plays such an important role in the community. I have always found that when the boys do their Queen’s Award, and they are doing their voluntary work helping an elderly person in the community, they realise it’s nice to be helpful,” concluded Joe.