CLUBS

Young SVP at TUS Moylish is a student-run society focused on helping out in our local community (Limerick). We get involved in volunteering for the most part, and other activities to support people who need a hand. It's also a great way to meet new people, make friends and do something worthwhile outside of college!

Our society is part of the wider Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) in Ireland, with our main aim being to get more young people involved in volunteering, particularly in the local community. I started this society as outside of college I already do a lot of volunteering with various organisations, one of them being SVP, mostly in the charity shop sphere, not visitation. 

To join you don't need any relevant volunteering experience, just a willingness to help out and make a difference to those who need it, whether it be through letter-writing initiatives to those in nursing homes, fundraisers, food banks, or other activities we've yet to try located in our handbook. 

We've previously tried letter-writing initiatives with local nursing homes, although these unfortunately didn't continue for very long.

Our main focus at the moment is getting a food bank up and running within the college. The idea is to complement the existing food hampers provided through Midwest Simon by making perishable food available to students who might need it. Unfortunately, we had to put this on hold while many of us were away on placement during 2026, but now that we're back in college, we're hoping to get things moving again.

For anyone interested in what we're trying to set up, it's quite similar to the  ReFridge  initiative run by Young SVP at TU Dublin, which is where we got some of our inspiration from.

Other parts of SVP we've yet to explore consist of the following:

• Social justice
• Fundraisers
• Visitation 
• Collaborations with other charities/societies

If any of the above sounds interesting to you, feel free to get in touch! We're always open to new ideas and would be happy to look into organising other activities if there's enough interest.

History

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVP) was founded in Paris in 1833 by a group of university students led by Frédéric Ozanam. They wanted to do something about the poverty they were seeing around them, initially helping families by providing food and fuel.

SVP first came to Ireland in 1844 and has since grown into one of the country's largest voluntary charitable organisations, helping people affected by poverty, homelessness and social exclusion.

Young SVP continues the society's original student-led beginnings by encouraging young people in schools and colleges to get involved in volunteering and supporting their local communities. Activities can range from fundraising and food banks to befriending initiatives and social justice projects.

Training

For activities where you'll be working directly with children, young people or vulnerable adults, you'll need to complete the relevant training, membership application and Garda vetting beforehand.

Currently, the main training we're looking into is food safety training for the proposed food bank. As volunteers would be handling and distributing food, it's important that everyone involved understands proper food handling, storage and hygiene practices, particularly when dealing with perishable goods. We're looking at courses such as Safefood for Business to help us meet these requirements.

SVP provides three main types of training depending on the activity:

• Child Protection Awareness Programme (CPAP): For volunteers working with children or young people, covering safeguarding, recognising concerns and reporting procedures.
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults (SVA): For volunteers working with older people or adults with disabilities, focusing on safeguarding and appropriate volunteering practices.
• Street Outreach Training:  For volunteers interested in outreach work with people experiencing homelessness.

If you're interested in any activities that require training, just get in touch with the committee and we can look into arranging it with our SVP College Support Officer.

You don't need any previous volunteering experience to join the society, and there's plenty you can get involved in without needing additional training.

Contact Us

Shane Whelan (Chairperson)

Mobile: (+353) 87 620 2563

Email:  tusyoungsvp@gmail.com