Volunteering

ninty9er

What kind of volunteering activities would UL students be interested in??

Just as a matter of interest.

e.g - Weekly riverbank cleanup, organising a UL soccer league, giving time in Milford Hospice.

Each of these would require a practical as well as an administrative input, so if you don't think working with sick people is for you, arranging some admin stuff is an option.

Anyone see any of those as an option.

Busi_Girl08

Do you mean just around the UL area?

Because another alternative could be to do some work in charity shops like Oxfam, Enable Ireland, etc.

I keep meaning to go in to one of them but...I get very easily distrac- ooh a pidgeon!!

ninty9er

Interesting one.

Mossin

I do peer mentoring already in UL, and will be doing more next year for the Access Office too.

Doing a UL soccer league would be a good one.

rmacm

ninty9er wrote: »

giving time in Milford Hospice.

I'd give a +1 to this.....always had a soft spot for Milford Hospice they took great care of one of my grand parents before they died.

Gael23

Mossin wrote: »

I do peer mentoring already in UL, and will be doing more next year for the Access Office too.

The Peer mentoring sounds like a great service.

Rineanna

I'd be interested in such an initiative. My current co-op employers, as Mossin will know, are big on the volunteering side of things, and it's actually great craic. I never picked up a paint brush in my life up until a few weeks ago, but together with a small band of people we painted a whole community centre, so a lot can be done with a few people.

I wouldn't mind doing some admin either if required. What kind of stuff had you in mind?

All the projects mentioned earlier sound good. There could be a mixture of internal and external projects. The internal projects obviously would be things like the river clean up, or if there's anything else around the Uni that people think needs improvement.

The volunteering could come in the form of organising events on campus too to add to the student experience. Ok, I'm rambling now!

Mossin

ryanf1 wrote: »

The Peer mentoring sounds like a great service.

It is a great service indeed. It runs under the name "Connect", and is really valuable I feel. Here is a link it. Things are a little basic right now, but its worth doing. http://www2.ul.ie/web/WWW/Services/Student_Affairs/Services/CONNECT/About_Us

Rineanna wrote: »

My current co-op employers, as Mossin will know, are big on the volunteering side of things, and it's actually great craic. I never picked up a paint brush in my life up until a few weeks ago, but together with a small band of people we painted a whole community centre, so a lot can be done with a few people.

Yeah they are very proud of their volunteer work, I myself participated in a river clean-up with that employer also.

Some good ideas being bandied about here, and all worth doing too.

_Coco_

I'm not sure if its along the same lines as you're thinking but places like Lisnagry and Bawnmore could be other options to look at to work with disabled people. I know bawnmore used to allow people volunteer with the residents and basically it would only involve doing activities in a sports hall and encourage the residents to get involved and get active. Would also be great experience for PE students etc. especially with issues with Coop and relevance to course being a big issue at the moment. Only thing is for insurance reasons a lot of places are now reluctant to accept volunteers.

Any other ideas on places to volunteer where the experience would benefit future prospects? I only mean that most places now seem to be looking at experience nearly more so than qualification/education so something which would be of practical use to students would be a good, enticing idea also...

ninty9er

Volunteering should have no idealogical, practical, implied link or otherwise to co-op as one is for the benefit of others and the other is an academic requirement.

Bawnmore and Lisnagry would be a good idea alright, for people that would be interested.

_Coco_

Not exactly what I was implying but point taken. I just thought to give people ideas other than the typical areas of volunteering would also be a way of encouraging people to volunteer.

Coop is an academic requirement but people are not always assigned to places where it is relevant to their particular course. I'm not trying to take from the fact that volunteering is for the benefit of others, without personal motivation and I'm not suggesting that it would in any way be associated with coop, but some students may wish to pursue volunteering in areas which might be of some relevance to their college courses as presumably they would have a strong interest in such areas and help or direction in this regard may be appreciated.