Galway Today

Galway has a vibrant community and non-profit sector with 100s of groups and 1000s of people involved in the community on a regular basis. Much of this work goes unnoticed, but the city would grind to a halt without it.

Key Challenges for Community

There are no accessible and timely community based supports to develop the management capacities of organisations. Finding appropriate supports, expertise and training to develop such skills as financial management, governance, HR, strategic planning is difficult if not impossible.

In addition, there are no identifiable local supports to develop innovative leadership within the community. This means that many organisations are not able to develop their services to the community further, particularly in the recent challenging funding environment.

There is no space for community leaders, whether they be professionals or volunteers, to share their experiences and learn from their peers. Organisations are often dealing with common challenges while working in isolation, and it is difficult to develop best practice together.

In addition there are few strategic opportunities for business leaders to share their skills and expertise with the community sector. At the same time there are many non-profits that could benefit from these skills and expertise.

Building Community Excellence

In 2015, Volunteer Galway successfully applied for funding from The Wheel Training Links Programme, to develop a network that promotes organisational excellence in the non-profit sector in Galway, and to source much needed training for staff and volunteers across the wide range organisations that are working to make Galway a better place to live for all.