Summary of ideas submitted in the Social and voluntary category…

• Create a system based on tokens instead of money.
• Create a web tool to facilitate volunteering and community involvement.
• Create allotments from idle lands and allocate fairly.
• Create community gardens/ allotments.
• Dragon’s Den within the Public Service that would draw together people with the necessary expertise, seniority and access to finance who would act as a fast-track forum for getting new micro-businesses started.
• Drop in suicide help centres.
• Earlier detection of mental illnesses.
• Early childcare supplement should be scrapped.
• Employees in social welfare offices work longer hours for free to clear dole queues.
• Encourage communities to help other members in the community.
• Encourage community partnerships.
• Encourage cooking on budgets.
• Encourage counselling services in communities.
• Encourage employment networking clubs.
• Encourage good work by people.
• Encourage graduates to offer their services to improve the academic skills of unemployed and/or early school leavers.
• Encourage parents to give “hand-me-downs” to other parents.
• Enlist retired people to help out with community projects.
• Ensure people on the dole do 15 hours per week of community service.
• Establish voluntary public sector office.
• Every organisation should give 10% of profits to non-profit organisations.
• Everybody willing will give one day’s wage as a quick fix to inject cash.
• Expand the existing Community Development and Family Resource Centres.
• Expanded Community Employment Scheme. Bonus payments for those wishing to do a bit extra.
• Federation of National Voluntary Bodies.
• G.I.V.E. for Give Ireland Voluntary Effort.
• Garda clearance for job applicants should be made more efficient.
• Gardeners to help out with the national school kids and help them to grow vegetables.
• Get disability groups to share resources and work on gaps in services.
• Get elderly people to become active in voluntary programmes.
• Get people who are on the dole to earn the payments they receive, by placing highly visible people on the streets around our towns and cities as troubleshooters for tourists or even the locals.
• Get the unemployed people to help the elderly.
• Give those signing on a list of local voluntary bodies that could do with their help. Volunteer stamps would be given in return.
• Golden Day Skills Bank. There are thousands of retired people, many retired quite early, who would voluntarily contribute free gratis a day of their skilled time to advise and assist new and developing businesses.
• Government should fund a number of small community initiatives.