St. Vincent de Paul volunteer workers needed

pprendeville

Hi all,

I'm part of a SVP conference in Finglas West and we're very short of members at the moment, currently down to 5 and we could do with 3 more at least. I'll outline where we meet, what we do and how you can join (or do a trial run to see if you'd like it) up in the next few paragraphs.

We meet in The Church of the Annunciation on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. I'm currently unemployed myself and have a bit of time to spare (doing a FAS course on Mon and Tues) so I'm glad to be helping others during these difficult times. We start with a short prayer and a reflective reading sometimes and then go on to read the minutes of the previous week. Then we'd discuss the work we did the previous week, i.e. who we visited, how we helped, what we can do to improve their circumstances etc. Fortunately, the staff of the church are kind enough to bring us in tea and biscuits which is my favourite part of the meeting (happens about half way through).

Towards the end of the meeting after assessing new applications we divide up and visit families/individuals and do our best to listen to their problems and offer them support. I find that people like to share their problems and anxieties with us and it seems to cheer them up that little bit to know that there are people out there who genuinely want to help them.

I myself find it particularly rewarding to help others and I always feel greatful for what I have after finishing my visits. I'm glad I joined and should I get work (hopefully I will son) I'd like to think I'll join another conference that does visits in the evenings.

Should you wish to join us or just have a look and see please feel free to PM me or call The Saint Vincent de Paul headquarters on Sean McDermott St on 01-8386892 for more details. Members of all ages are welcome. I'm 27 myself but we have members who have seen WW2 and lived to tell the tale (don't want to give away ages):).

God bless,

Philip.

pprendeville

Hi all,

this thread is getting plenty of views but no replies. can anyone recommend a better forum to put it in (can it be transferred to another forum?).

Failing that, has anyone got any recruitment suggestions? My add doesn't seem to have much appeal if I haven't even got one reply.

Ta.

Barname

I think the '10:30 am Wednesday' is killing potential responses

Alot of willing volunteers would be unable to make it during 'normal' working hours

hinault

I may be able to assist you with getting your appeal out to a broader audience, using another media.

If you want to PM me, we can see if I can help you out.

mikemac

You're in the right forum but not many can make 10:30am during the week. Can you do a 7pm meeting?

Good luck with it anyway

pprendeville

Maybe ye are right about the daytime. I just took it up as I have been out of work since Feb and it is something to look forward to. If I do get back into work I'd like to continue doing it by night. Thanks for the info.

dory

It's in the right forum, and it sounds really interesting, but there may be many things keeping people from replying. The time of day is one thing, the location might be very out of the way for some people, some people find the idea of visiting someone they don't know terrifying and would prefer some other form of social work. Some people would be put off by the religious aspect of the meeting.
I myself am only in Ireland for a few more weeks and would hate to commit to something and then leave.
But I wish you the best of luck.

glennhysen

Sorry you haven't been getting many replies. Unfortunately like others said I think the time of day doesn't suit any potential new members.

I've been in the SVP since 2000 and am a member of a conference in Ballymun. We meet in the evenings and I find this seems to suit people better. Would your members not consider changing their meeting time to the evening as it might attract new members?

I also find the work very rewarding as it has opened up my eyes to what life is like for some people that live in the city. Anyway I'm sure all of us in the SVP are going to be very busy over the next 5 weeks for Christmas, so best of luck and keep up the good work.

dory

That said now I think day time meetings are nice for a change as I myself work nights and am so annoyed with all the part time courses and all being during the evenings. I get so bored during the day. Maybe you need to advertise more? Announce it at mass maybe?

pprendeville

mikemac wrote: »

You're in the right forum but not many can make 10:30am during the week. Can you do a 7pm meeting?

Good luck with it anyway

I think the reason the meeting time was changed to 10:30 was because there were issues with visiting people at night in the Finglas West area. twas a bit dodgy apparently so they made it a day meeting following by visits. I know the group that meet in St. Canice's in the village visit at night though if you wanted to join them.

mikemac

Makes sense
I would hope you don't send volunteers on their own to knock on doors in unfamiliar areas.
Not just Finglas West, any area really with these dark evenings

Is a volunteer accompanied by someone experienced for the first while at least?

pprendeville

glennhysen wrote: »

Sorry you haven't been getting many replies. Unfortunately like others said I think the time of day doesn't suit any potential new members.

I've been in the SVP since 2000 and am a member of a conference in Ballymun. We meet in the evenings and I find this seems to suit people better. Would your members not consider changing their meeting time to the evening as it might attract new members?

I also find the work very rewarding as it has opened up my eyes to what life is like for some people that live in the city. Anyway I'm sure all of us in the SVP are going to be very busy over the next 5 weeks for Christmas, so best of luck and keep up the good work.

Are ye going to be going to Charlestown in the next few weeks. Apparently management up there have selected SVP as their charity for this Christmas. A guy in a conference out in Tallaght is kinda running the show. There's going to be a Christmas tree outside Dunnes Stores and people will be asked to buy goods/toys (not sure which, maybe both) and leave them under the tree on the way out and we go and collect them and distribute them to clients. Apparently it was done before and some of the members weren't too keen as they said it was a lot of work collectinbg the stuff and bringing it around but I think it's a good idea. You can chawlk it down we're going to be busy. What do you find are the most common things people are saying to you. Better PM me on that Q i think.:)

pprendeville

dory wrote: »

That said now I think day time meetings are nice for a change as I myself work nights and am so annoyed with all the part time courses and all being during the evenings. I get so bored during the day. Maybe you need to advertise more? Announce it at mass maybe?

Would you be interested in volunteering? Great organisation and the group is laidback but committed. No harm to give it a try anyway.

pprendeville

mikemac wrote: »

Makes sense
I would hope you don't send volunteers on their own to knock on doors in unfamiliar areas.
Not just Finglas West, any area really with these dark evenings

Is a volunteer accompanied by someone experienced for the first while at least?

Yes you're right. any area is unsafe now. Read a thread about people in Drogheda being targeted on their way to the bank. Shocking stuff altogether.

Yes, when I started, I was paired with an old pro. Very nice man in his 80s and still going strong. Have to admire the older Irish generation. Made of much sterner stuff than we are (I'm 27). we always go in 2's. It's a rule. I think there may have been a case where someone who visited a house on their own had false accusations made against them. I suppose it goes with the job really.

IvySlayer

I've been looking to volunteer for a while now. And I would so love to help, but I live in Lucan, and I don't know Finglas at all.

bigred09

only new to the board, i joined specifically looking for volounteer work.

i recently applied to work with special olympics ireland but unfortunately i do have a criminal record and was denied due to garda clearance.

this still hasnt deterred me and i feel i still have alot to offer.

i am in the clondalkin area, so wud prefer working here but would be willing to travel!!

i have worked with disabled children in the past, so am familiar with certain aspects of volunteer work!!

i am self employed so would be fairly flexible regarding availability.

kind regards,
Bryan

star gazer

Link - Volunteer South Dublin thinking of volunteering quoted below

If you do have a criminal record and you are worried that this
might affect the type of volunteering you will be able to do, then
talk with a member of staff at the Volunteer Centre, in complete
confidence, about this. As part of the services they provide to
volunteer-involving organisations, Volunteer Centres provide
Garda Vetting to local voluntary organisations. If you would like to
know more about this service, please contact your local Volunteer
Centre (contact details can be found on www.volunteer.ie).

contact details are at the bottom of the homepage: www.volunteersouthdublin.ie

<snip>
This is the right place after all, sorry.

pprendeville

Hi big red,

Did you get my PM? You can give me a call on 086 1082223 to discusse if you have time.

Cheers.

JuJuBean

Ivy Slayer if you go to the South Dublin Volunteer Centre website and register, you can join the SVP society in your locality....I've just signed up with them and am waiting to hear back.

Yahooaccount

pprendeville wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm part of a SVP conference in Finglas West and we're very short of members at the moment, currently down to 5 and we could do with 3 more at least. I'll outline where we meet, what we do and how you can join (or do a trial run to see if you'd like it) up in the next few paragraphs.

We meet in The Church of the Annunciation on Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m. I'm currently unemployed myself and have a bit of time to spare (doing a FAS course on Mon and Tues) so I'm glad to be helping others during these difficult times. We start with a short prayer and a reflective reading sometimes and then go on to read the minutes of the previous week. Then we'd discuss the work we did the previous week, i.e. who we visited, how we helped, what we can do to improve their circumstances etc. Fortunately, the staff of the church are kind enough to bring us in tea and biscuits which is my favourite part of the meeting (happens about half way through).

Towards the end of the meeting after assessing new applications we divide up and visit families/individuals and do our best to listen to their problems and offer them support. I find that people like to share their problems and anxieties with us and it seems to cheer them up that little bit to know that there are people out there who genuinely want to help them.

I myself find it particularly rewarding to help others and I always feel greatful for what I have after finishing my visits. I'm glad I joined and should I get work (hopefully I will son) I'd like to think I'll join another conference that does visits in the evenings.

Should you wish to join us or just have a look and see please feel free to PM me or call The Saint Vincent de Paul headquarters on Sean McDermott St on 01-8386892 for more details. Members of all ages are welcome. I'm 27 myself but we have members who have seen WW2 and lived to tell the tale (don't want to give away ages):).

God bless,

Philip.

Hi Philip,

I just want to wish you the best of luck with all your volunteer work! I'm in the Wesht myself so it would be some commute to Dublin, but you have just given me the idea to join my local Saint Vincent de Paul. I think I'll join in the Summer as I'm only 16 and would have trouble finding the time with school!

I would be so glad if you could answer just a couple of questions:
what sort of work would we be doing? Would we be visiting people, charity fundraising, that sort of thing? What sort of hours would I volunteer for? Also, am I too young?

Thank you so much and God bless!

pprendeville

I'm glad I inspired somebody. Pity it's not someone in the Finglas area however. Best of luck in the future.

You're main duties would be as follows:

Attending a weekly meeting and discussing your previous weeks visits.
Assessing new applications from people who are in need.
Visiting people and finding out what exactly their problems are (usually financial such as gas/electricity bills etc)
Being a shoulder to cry on in general.
Using your own initiative to improve the conference in whatever way you deem possible. For example, there was very little prayer aspect to our meeting so I got a reflection book and a different person reads a reflection at the beginning of each meeting. I think it's important not to leave out the spiritual side of things.

Charity fundraising is a possibility if you have the dedication to go and do that. It's not a necessity but if you can get in money, then why not. At Christmas time, we collaborated with a local Dunnes Stores and put a big Santa bag outside the shop so people could put in some food for the less well off families. Lot of time and effort needed to set this up and distribute the food but well worth the effort. Things like these are what you might be doing but each conference (group) is different. It hust depends on whether the members are energetic enough to listen to new ideas from a youngster like yourself. If they've been round the block many's the time they might be stuck in their ways so be prepared for that. I get that a lot. Very annoying but I just do the things on my own like advertising online for example. Don't think many in our group know how to use a computer so enough said.

Finally, time depends on yourself. Minimum of 3 hours a week I rekon and if you want to do more you can. You'll find you get a great sense of satisfaction helping others. I recently got a CD by a fella called Depak Chopra and he said you only receive when you give - by you giving your time you will receive so much happines and content from helping others and many other gifts besides. I really believe this and have seen the proof of it. You're not too young. The younger you join a group like this the better. You'll get to know others. You might see them in the shops now and think they're ordinary jo sobes but when you see them in their work you'll see them in a different light - guaranteed.

Anyway's let me know how you get on. Go neiri and tadh leat.

God bless,

Phil.