Welcome to our new look e-mail newsletter. We hope you will find this new format easier to read and negotiate. Any comments will be gratefully received.

• South Dublin County Volunteer Centre is delighted to welcome Maria Keogh as a new member of staff. Maria will begin work as youth placement officer in July. Maria's main work will be to promote volunteering by young people and for young people. It is envisaged that this project will be driven forward in close conjunction with Tallaght Youth Service. We wish Maria all the best as she takes up this new, challenging and exciting position.

• Our new book - "What would you like to do - images of volunteering in Tallaght" - will be launched by an Meara, Cáit Keane, at the South Dublin Community Awards on June 10th. For free copies of the publication, please contact us here in the office.

• Other publications available at the office include "Thinking of Volunteering - a step by step guide" plus many articles and books on volunteering issues. You are more than welcome to call in and browse through our library.

• An independent evaluation of the service has just been completed. Copies of the evaluation are available from the Centre.

• Congratulations to Denise Laird (SDCVC Placement Officer) on the birth of her son Matthew.

• Good luck to Harold Slok who begins work as manager of Clondalkin Volunteer Centre. We look forward to a fruitful and productive relationship between the two bureaux.

• South Dublin County Volunteer Centre is hoping to organise a forum on volunteering to discuss to issues that are being experienced in the community. More details to follow soon.

Volunteering is all about giving of your time in work to serve and help others without any financial rewards; that in itself is what makes the act volunteering a unique act for persons who want to contribute through service to the society. The late Martin Luther King once wrote that: everyone can be famous but not everyone can be great because greatness comes from service. If greatness is achieved through service, then service rendered selflessly and without financial gain or reward must be in my opinion much greater. The Bible teaches us to sew seeds so as to have something to reap at harvest time, for whosoever sows will reap the fruits of whatever he/she has sown. The seed(s) we sow must not be physical seeds from fruits or vegetables: it could be in the form service to one’s community, acts of charity and so on. After all, it is more blessed to give than to receive and the hand of the giver is always on top of the hand of the receiver!

I got into volunteering as a carry over of the activities that my family and I have involved in back in Nigeria. As a young boy, I was in both the Red Cross/Crescent and the Boy Scout Movement. So the act of selfless service has been imbued in me from childhood. Wherever I have been, there is that nagging feeling to get involved in doing something for my community. This mannerism stems in part from the fact that I am a restless person and thus willing to ever try to do challenging things.
Upon arrival in Tallaght, I enquired from my then Landlord Mr. John Stokes where I could get myself gainfully engaged since we were not eligible to work. He referred us Tallaght CIC and there early in August 1999, met with a Mr. John MacDermott, and subsequently Tricia Nolan, Tina and Denise. There were no challenging roles for me so started out helping at Holy Rosary National School at Ballycragh in paired reading, and in the Computer room.

Breakthrough to do what I love best to do came when Tallaght Citizens Information Centre engaged my services in the areas of IT training for its staff, setting up, installing and troubleshooting and repairing PCs for local volunteer groups. My greatest challenge and source of joy came when I was asked and subsequently sent to give Internet Training to Students with learning disability at the Hospitallier of St.John of God (Menni Services). My acceptance of this responsibility opened my eyes further to the wonders of God in the fact that there is nothing in His creation that is without purpose: that there abound a considerable element of innate intelligence and abundant spirit and energy in every man regardless of his/her physical/mental disability. It was satisfyingly gratifying to me have gotten involved with them and I still do. The joy of being able to impart my knowledge to another person and that person using that same knowledge for his/her own benefit is mightily rewardingly fulfilling.

In addition, the interaction I have made with my local community through volunteering and the rewards therefrom cannot be quantified financially or otherwise. How can one assign value to love, such love and genuine concern/support shown to my family and I? My family and I have more Irish friends and acquaintances: Councillors, Librarians, TDs, Medical Doctors, Business persons, etc. than from amongst my fellow Nigerians. All these we have gained through volunteering!

There is to me joy in volunteering as a form of service which only volunteers (and or those willing to volunteer) only know too well. My advice therefore is for those of you reading this piece is to get into volunteering to discover that joy for yourself.
For me and family, the joy continues.

Inua Ellams

"You have not lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."

"The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Ghandi

VOLUNTEER

V is for the vigor that you bring
O is for the opportunity to know you
L is for your life you share
U is for the unconditional love you have
N is for the nurturing you give
T is for the time you don't have
E is for the excitement you bring
E is for the energy you have
R is for the reason you're a volunteer

Below are some of our newest volunteering opportunities to give you a flavour of some of the types of voluntary work that are available through the Volunteer Bureau. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone us at 462 8558

Perm Childrens Fund (Ref 27/02)

Perm is an Irish charity set up to support the work of other charitable organisatins caring for the street children of Perm, Siberia’s gateway city. Perm fundraises on behalf of these groups, co-developing special projects with them aimed at building a brighter future for the children in their care.

We require volunteers to act as holiday leaders for our holiday project which will involve 21 kids and 7 carers (from Russia) coming to Avoca, Co. Wicklow for 12 days for 12 days in June.

St. Dominics Community Response Program (Ref 25/02)

St Dominic’s is a community based project set up to respond to drug addiction within the area. It aims to raise awareness and look at the possibility of alternative healthier lifestyles. The project is looking for a cook to prepare a meal for clients on a Friday morning of each week. The meal will be prepared in the kitchens of the project.

Freds Fashions (Ref 23/02)

Freds fashions is a community based charity shop raising funds for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. At present the shop in Tallaght is looking for volunteer shop workers to help with selling goods, stacking shelves and sorting clothes

National Braille Production Centre (Ref 22/02)
The national Braille Production Centre are looking for Text Scanning Editors. Volunteers are required to scan printed schoolbooks using a standard PC to create a text file which will be used to produce specially formatted books for visually impaired children. Must have own computer.

Tallaght Rehabilitation Project (ref 28/02 - 35/02)

Tallaght Rehabilitation Project is a community based centre which provides rehabilitation and education for recovering drug users. There are several different opportunities available for volunteers to become involved in this worthwhile project. You can

• Design and publish a newsletter
• Design, publish and maintain a web site
• Teach Guitar to clients
• Tutor computer to clients
• Help with reception and administration
• Help with developing and maintaining a garden
• Teach Arts
• Teach Drama
• Teach communications skills
• Help with financial and strategic planning
• Help with upkeep of premises - painting, decorating, carpentry etc...

Aware (ref 21/02)

Aware provides support and help for people suffering from depression. At present they are looking for people who will offer telephone helpline support.

Finding Daytime Volunteers

One of the myths of the volunteer world is that daytime volunteers are an endangered species. In the past, organizations grew complacent in their dependency on female homemakers. When women took paying jobs (though in fact some homemakers still exist), such agencies found themselves without their accustomed source of volunteers. The good news is that organizations willing to seek new pools of talent will end up with an even better corps of volunteers than before.
There is no secret about where to find middle-aged, adult volunteers available for weekday assignments: recruit from the large segment of the workforce who do not work "normal" hours. In fact, logic shows that "normal" hours are relative indeed. Think about all the jobs that require: shift work; predominantly evening hours; weekend days; or odd or flexible schedules.

Shift Work
A wide variety of institutions and businesses function twenty-four hours a day or at least on double shift. This means that many people who work 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. have discretionary time available overlapping the 9:00 to 5:00 agency day. Even the night shift might be attracted to early morning volunteer work. If you select worksites close to your organization's location, one of your recruitment pitches can be: "help us out on your way to or from work with very little extra commuting."

Consider the range of people and skills available in 24- hour worksites: hospitals and residential treatment programs; many factories; television and radio stations; police and fire departments; telephone companies; hotels; the military; the Postal Service and overnight delivery companies.

Evening Workers
In the same vein, it is easy to identify businesses employing people mainly in the evening hours. Such workers often sleep late after a long night at work, but are prospective volunteers in the afternoon. Some sites are: restaurants; theaters; newspapers; janitorial services; computer services.

Weekend Workers
Quite a number of jobs require Saturday and/or Sunday shifts, thereby giving employees a full day or two off during the week: parks and recreation programs; most cultural attractions such as museums and historic sites; churches and synagogues; libraries; shopping malls; hair salons; sports and country clubs. Some jobs overlap categories, especially retail sales which employ people on the weekends and in the evenings.

Odd or "Free-to-Choose" Schedules
Some employed people work on changing, inconsistent, or temporary schedules. While this may make it difficult to place such volunteers in regular assignments, they are nevertheless excellent resources for volunteering that focuses on producing a result rather than requiring a time commitment. Consider: airline personnel; substitute teachers; "temps" of all sorts; long distance truck drivers; farmers; university faculty; collection agents.

A whole sub-category involves people who are self- employed or work on commission. They can choose to volunteer during a weekday and "make up" the work time later. For example: consultants; artists; anyone who works at home; sole practitioners in fields such as accounting or public relations; real estate agents.
It is probably worthwhile to point out that the higher a person rises in a company, the more flexibility s/he has in allocating his or her schedule. So you can consider top executives more likely weekday recruits than secretaries who have less choice.

How to Recruit These Folks
There is nothing mysterious about encouraging the people identified above to volunteer: go to them and ask. This may mean arranging to send someone from your organization to a worksite in the evening to talk with prospective candidates. Target a worksite with a campaign that shows employees you really want their involvement. The "we're in the same neighborhood" approach makes sense to people. So do volunteer job descriptions that make use of the skills these employees demonstrate on their paying jobs.
People whose work hours differ from the majority are motivated by the same things as any other prospective volunteer. If we expect people who work Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 5:00, to volunteer in the evenings or on weekends, why is it surprising that someone who works in the evenings would be willing to volunteer in the morning? Ironically, loneliness may be a factor in favor of joining your organisation-maybe the Saturday employee has few ways to have fun on his or her Tuesday off.

So don't believe that the volunteer pool is "drying up" because women are in the paid work force. The great news is that there are vast reservoirs of talent that the nonprofit community has simply never approached. The sources identified here pose more of a challenge to the recruiter. But the necessity to reach out to these new places will result in a stronger and more diversified volunteer corps.

South Dublin County Volunteer Centre
512 Main Street
Tallaght
Dublin 24
Tel: +353 1 4628558
Fax: +353 1 4628384
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web page: www.volunteersouthdublin.ie