MANY clubs across Ulster are participating in the highly successful GoldMark Programme to encourage and reward young people volunteering in sport.

It is benefiting clubs by building the capacity of its younger volunteers and also by ensuring there is plenty of help for all sorts of activities.

It’s always a struggle for clubs to get volunteers, but one group who can go overlooked is young people.

Young members offer so much to clubs, and not just from a playing point of view. Many young volunteers are making significant impact in their clubs across Ulster helping out with underage teams and Scór, helping to line out fields and maintain pitches, many are designing artwork for tickets and posters, while others help with social media and website.

There really is an endless list that young people can assist with, and very often they have new and innovative skills and knowledge that can benefit your club. That’s why so many clubs are participating in the highly successful GoldMark Programme.

The GoldMark Programme is for young people aged 14-24 years old volunteering in a club setting.

The programme is very straightforward, it simply requires the young volunteer to record their hours of volunteering which is signed off by someone within the club who acts as the co-ordinator.

The club co-ordinator then sends a list of volunteers and hours to Sharon Haughey-Grimley at Ulster GAA who will processes awards at 50 hours, 100 hours and 200 hours of volunteering. The programme is open-ended so young volunteers can take as long as they need to complete their awards.

The 200-hour award is an award of excellence, usually signed off by the Minister of Education, or in their absence a senior civil servant.

The programme is highly prestigious and is adds significant value to CVs and college applications, showing the young person has shown a commitment to developing their skills and knowledge through their sport.

Any club or young person interested in getting involved in the GoldMark Programme should contact Sharon Haughey-Grimley on sharon.haughey.ulster@gaa.ie.