Volunteering
CORE Ireland has a number of volunteers working in our office, delivering and collecting items for our ‘Nourish Project’ and managing our social media from home. We rely on our volunteers for the work that we do. Each volunteer plays an essential role in our group.
Current Volunteer Roles
Office Work
Our office is in the Meath Enterprise centre, Navan. We have volunteers in the office from 10am to 4pm on Monday to Friday each week. Thanks to our sponsors, we have nine computers available for use in our office. Office work would include planning for events, projects and future work that needs to be done. It would also include filling out forms and data collection.
Projects
Our projects are a huge part of what CORE do. Our main project is The Nourish Project . This position would include donating your time to organizing donations and delivering/collecting donations.
Events/Fundraising team
Core as an organisation do not fundraise for ourselves as we do not accept monetary donations. However, many of the groups we work with require these donations. As part of the fundraising team, you will be involved in planning and organising events. You will also be collaborating with Core’s partners and other local groups.
Social Media
Core Ireland have various social media platforms active, such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. All of these accounts are run by volunteers. Managing social media means that each volunteer would be responsible for reposting relevant events and stories, writing small posts for our social media and finding striking images to liven up our pages. If comfortable, the volunteer would also be involved in the upkeep of our website (Can be done remotely).
Blog Posts
Our website depends on blog posts to keep our visitors interested. If you have an interest in writing about the environment, physical and mental health, local community groups or anything in this area, we would love to hear from you. Details about what’s required for blog posts will be given ahead of time (Can be done remotely).
Skilled Volunteering
As part of our services, we do various projects in the community. Occasionally we require volunteers with specific skills such as an electrician, a plasterer, a builder etc,. We would greatly appreciate anyone with specific skills who could donate a few hours every few weeks to help us in our projects to make the community a better place. This would be specifically for our Extreme Community Care (ECC) project.
Testimonials
I joined Employment Based Training course to further my work skills and social skills. While on the Employment Based Training course I did my work experience in GameStop in Blanchardstown. It really helped me improve my social situations and to experience what it is like to work in a shop. On the Employment Based Training course I did the following modules, Interpersonal Development, Work Experience and Customer Service. My favourite module is Customer Service because I learned how to deal with customers in different ways.
I heard of Core Services from Bernard coming into National Learning Network talking to him about what Core does and how is helps families. I found it very interesting. I heard Core were looking for volunteers to help I immediately wanted to help because of what Core Services does.
I really enjoyed my time with National Learning Network because I meet a lot of new people and I learned a lot from the modules and work experience I did. I felt the National Learning Network understood my Disability and what supports I needed. Due to my dyspraxia I have co-ordination problems, poor muscle tone- my muscles get tired easily and I have fine motor skills problems, the National Learning Network worked around these problems with me.
Ciarán
Frank
I have worked in the construction industry for most of my adult life. It was for the best part a rewarding and enjoyable career. Unfortunately I had a bad accident at work in 2016 and my injuries prevented me from returning to work which was physically demanding.
The problem I now faced was what to do next. I simply didn’t have any other skills available to me so re-entering the workforce was proving to be a problem. At 52 yrs of age I thought my options were limited. Luckily for me a friend pointed me in the direction of the NLN and they arranged a meeting. I was introduced to Helen Mallon who immediately made me feel welcome and discussed the various courses on offer at NLN. Helen then introduced me to IT and OFFICE studies and arranged a sample visit to see if I liked the course. I haven’t looked back since.
Part of this 18 month module consists of a concept called work experience. After a settling in period the students are encouraged to pick up some valuable work experience with organisations or business groups linked with the NLN. You could also arrange your own work experience. It applies for one day a week and is hugely beneficial to those students seeking employment. Core Ireland is a charity based organisation which is the Brainchild of Bernard Kenny. I was happy to be selected to work for Core Ireland as part of the work experience imitative.