We have many different roles / opportunities to become involved as a volunteer with Cheeverstown. From supporting people out and about within their local community, to driving, gardening, admin or many more activities that help in the work of Cheeverstown. If you are interested or just want to learn more about our volunteering programme please get in touch. People often tell us about the benefits of becoming involved, often it’s the small everyday shared experiences that really make a difference in people’s lives, as Ghandi once said “The Best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others”
We have organisations that offer their staff teams to commit to volunteering days with us e.g. it may be gardening, painting, general tidy-up days or Alternatively if you have skills that you could share with us on an on-going basis we would love to hear from you.
We encourage diversity and inclusion from different ethnic, religious, age and gender backgrounds from within the community. Cheeverstown is an equal opportunities organization. We believe the volunteering has a positive impact on both the volunteers and Cheeverstown. All volunteers are asked to complete a diversity questionnaire, this helps us to monitor the range of people who were becoming involved as volunteers within Cheeverstown. By monitoring diversity we can identify gaps and areas which are underrepresented, and activity work towards including all groups within our volunteer programme. We will review the findings on an annual basis and publish findings on our web-site.
“I was unemployed at the time and volunteered with Cheeverstown. I have enjoyed the experience so much that I have decided to go to college and make a career in this area healthcare.“
"Volunteering is the best thing I’ve ever done. I volunteer with the Advocacy Committee – a committee established to advocate for service users by service users. The committee provides a central forum for its representatives to identify priorities and formulate agreed actions. I’ve met some great people and hope that through my volunteering I have made a small change in some people’s lives for the better – Now that is very rewarding! Volunteering has also encouraged me to put myself out of my comfort zone through meeting people I may not have otherwise met. I will sum up my volunteering experience with the following:”“Just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something.”
“It is the best thing happened to my life. Cheeverstown changed me a lot. I have met a lot of new peoples here. I really liked the way people treated me. They appreciated me even if I did a small work. Thanks to Gerry O’Connor who really helped me a lot to get going with my volunteering work.”
My name is Moni and I am a 25 year old volunteer from Germany.
I’ve been working at Cheeverstown, Airton Centre for almost half a year and I have enjoyed it so much. Due to my social work studies in Germany I had to do an internship for a Semester. Doing this internship abroad was the best decision I could have made. In Germany I’ve already worked with people with special needs. Doing this kind of internship in Ireland, was such a great experience for me. There are lots of positive aspects. On the one hand I was able to improve my English skills and get to know the Irish culture. On the other hand I’ve learned a lot about working with people with special needs. People that haven’t worked with people with special needs might say: I couldn’t do it. It is so difficult. But they have never tried.
I think that volunteering or working in an organisation like Cheeverstown does not only change the opinion about people with disabilities, it also helps seeing life with other eyes. I have learned so much from my group, for example being happy about even small things. I am very grateful that I’ve had the possibility to get to know all these amazing personalities and I absolutely recommend volunteer work like that. I promise it is worth a try.
