By creating a national system of practical volunteering, we can tap into the inherent desire of young people to make a difference, writes Sheilagh Foley
The world is in turmoil - the US is losing dominance, Ireland is having another heatwave and Joe Wicks is staging a comeback.
It can be hard to stay optimistic - resilience has never been more important. Especially resilience in teenagers, as they are just years away from becoming decision-makers and inheriting the earth (or what's left of it).
Recently, while chatting to parents of older kids we accidentally slipped into a discussion about Transition Year (TY) in schools. A one-year program common in Irish secondary schools where students take a year off studying for exams to develop other sides of their personalities.
I still don't fully understand what happens but for the most part it sounds like a good experience. They do a bit of work, see a bit of life, there's a school play, etc, lovely. But then I found myself turning into a Dublin cab driver when I suggested "Shouldn't they learn a skill or something?"
I was told they learn personal skills, and social skills, and other skills nobody taught me growing up, certainly didn't devote a year to it. But truth be told I would be a better person if I had worked on those skills in my formative years.
I can't turn back time (a quality you share with Cher - Ed) but perhaps we could spread the enrichment that comes from TY, not only deep into the community but in a sustainable way. So I put back on my Dublin cabbie hat (which happens to be a beaten up old golfing cap) and suggested combining my idea of skill with volunteering. I don't mean the traditional methods of volunteering - a few days here and there, picking up weeds, or talking to the elderly, or painting a community hall, or washing a dog (I clearly don't know what people do when they volunteer, I think I just described everybody's visit to their grandparents!).
My suggestion was a national volunteer system (combining skill) that starts in school and goes for life (or until you get fed up).
You can choose your area of interest, if over subscribed you go to your second choice and so on. Maybe you can rotate through the choices, I'm making this up as I go along so it's a free-for-all (which might be the name for this programme). You meet like-minded peers, you learn a lot, develop resilience and capability. It would certainly tap into the growing social conscience of the rising generation.
People often want to help and give back but don't know where to start or don't want to do it alone. So we see people (especially young people) turning to platforms to rabble-rouse, protest, influence, etc. This is its own form of action (sort of), but if we move away from the rousing rhetoric and media 'likes' and to actual practical work, this idea of a rotation through civil protection could be a way forward.
Imagine medic units, engineering teams, and environmental crews. This programme could cover everything from practical skills like construction and advanced first aid to vital fields like logistics, risk management, communication and even diplomacy -- all in their real-world application. Without the practicality, I'd just be advocating for an extended curriculum, which nobody wants.
It wouldn't have to be just young people, it could be all members of society. You could stay connected and involved your entire life or tap in and out depending on other commitments.
Volunteering is generally not a very exciting topic so we would need a hook to get school-age kids beating down the door to partake. Nothing is more exciting than a disaster, that's why everyone has heard of the Titanic and no one has heard of its sister ship the Olympic, which had a successful operational record for 24 years and earned itself the nickname 'Old Reliable', no-one is going to a movie called Old Reliable. Every good story also needs a heroic act, like, oh I don't know, saving the goddamn world (or your country, community, town, whatever).
I don't even know if Ireland has a Disaster Management Agency, but it should, and that agency could run this national volunteer program that I have invented.
They would anticipate disruption and train the community to absorb the impact. That's going to look a lot better on your CV than your time as lead in the school play singing 'Greased Lightning'.
To be civic minded for a minute, we shouldn't expect politicians to solve everything (we saw how the world panicked during COVID). We should work as communities to solve our own problems. Any disaster is essentially a public health challenge whether it's managing mass casualties or dealing with the long-term mental health consequences. Another off-shoot of Transition Year is to explore independence. It all lines up beautifully.
I am making light of the need to anticipate disasters (reason 156 why I'm going to Hell) but we probably should all be up at night worrying about the cyber-energy-production-plexus. If this word isn't familiar to you, you're a disgrace! That said, I only learned it at the weekend.
The cyber-energy-production-plexus relates to our infrastructure and economy relying on the inter-dependency between telecommunications, energy systems and production networks. Any disruption to this complex interconnection could bring us to our knees. We are already seeing signs of this vulnerability through cyber attacks, tariffs, natural disasters, climate change, pandemics, etc.
Places like Ireland and the UK tend to under-invest in disaster management leading to a reactive policy rather than a proactive one. This plexus is arguably the most vulnerable pressure point our country faces. Obviously I've known that for hours now, I'm so embarrassed for people who didn't know that already (keep looking out for icebergs, guys).
Other countries such as Italy have structures in place with trained volunteers integrated into the countryside emergency response system. Civil protection organisations can activate trained equipped operatives within minutes. Irish people can't even say goodbye without dragging it out, how would we mobilize thousands of people in minutes? Our only hope is to be prepared, and a by-product of being prepared is the advent of proactive steps including preventative medicine - prevention is better than a cure.
Emergency responders are vital and we cannot replace them with volunteers but we can help them. I particularly like the idea of volunteers trained in medicine. Obviously not comparable to a doctor but a continuity of emergency or advanced First Aid, search and rescue, how to remove rubble safely, ambulance drivers, how to calm people down aka psychological first aid, the Red Cross are doing great work in this area. Doctors and nurses could become trainers and mentors. They could be part of the Think Tank involved in strategic planning, medical expertise is a critical component in handling disasters and their fallout.
Of course, training and organising the volunteers requires funding, and that's a sticking point. But consider this: could we reallocate a portion of the defense budget? It could be a lot cheaper than dealing with an outright disaster or paying for a war. Although our defense spending is a modest 0.2 per cent of GDP compared to the five per cent of NATO leaders, another sticking point.
We need to learn from the youth of today and start making some sustainable investments in our children. By creating a national system of practical volunteering, we can tap into the inherent desire of young people to make a difference. This wouldn't be just another extracurricular activity; it would be a foundational experience that builds resilience, skills, and a strong sense of community and may be a part of who they are for the rest of their lives. By proactively training citizens to respond to modern threats, we can shift from a reactive, vulnerable society to a proactive, prepared one.
We'll be the envy of every nation - a country so prepared, we'll be able to say goodbye to a crisis in under three minutes.
Ok so, bye-bye-bye-bye, wait did I tell ya, oh g'wan, g'wan, no, really, no, g'wan, g'wan, ah stop, stop, stop, no seriously, g'wan, stop, g'wan, and there was an iceberg and everything, I don't believe it, g'wan, stop, ok, ok, ok, bye, bye, bye, stop!