Westmeath Community Development

Give it a Swirl – The National Day of Volunteering – will take place on Friday 25th September and Westmeath Volunteer Centre are once again facilitating projects in the Westmeath area.
 
We wish to remind you that the closing date for registration is fast approaching and that we’d be happy to help your group flesh out a proposal, should you have an idea in mind.  We will then actively seek businesses/volunteers to carry out your project.

To register for a project or for more information go to www.volunteerwestmeath.ie or www.giveitaswirl.ie.

                                      Go on. Give it a swirl. Volunteer!

Please feel free to contact us for more information

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Athlone Office
Tel: 086-0433985
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We look forward to hearing from you
Sincerely
Ian

Ian O'Flynn 

Manager

Westmeath Volunteer Centre
Presentation House

Mullingar

County Westmeath

Tel: 044-9348571
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Give It A Swirl Day - the national day of volunteering - is just around the corner. Taking place on 25th September, the day is aimed at encouraging people of all ages and from all walks of life to lend a hand with a local cause by volunteering for just a few hours.

To see how you can join in the fun and make a difference in your community check out the list of local projects below.

Example Projects to help you!

Project Ideas: The project list below contains some ideas for possible projects that you can organise on Give It A Swirl Day.
If you are interested in hosting your own project, register it with your local volunteer centre www.volunteerwestmeath.ie or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
You will receive a free information pack as well as Give it a Swirl Day merchandise and recognition for your work and your organisation.

Project ideas might include:

 
Schools & Youth Groups
1. Twin yourselves with a retirement home or older persons’ group in you area. Spend time with the older people recording their memories and going through their photos. Host an exhibition of what you have
learned for GIASD.

2. Play bingo, play cards with older people

3. Host an Entertainment Day in your local care home. Play games, singsongs or put on a play for the residents.

4. Invite local people with a disability to an ‘Activity Day’ hosted by your school.

5. Organise a mobile phone day, for the Jack and Jill Children’s
Foundation

6. Organise care boxes for charities like the Chernobyl Children’s Trust for their Humanitarian Convoys

7. Clean up your school grounds, pick up litter and rake up the autumn leaves

8. Plant flowers in your school grounds or neighbouring areas. Campaign local business to sponsor a hanging basket on the main street.

9. Clean up and paint over unsightly grafitti in your local area.

10. Hold a ‘mentor’ day for new students, particularly first years and
students with English as a second language

11. Set up a peer counseling service

12. Organise to take part in an “autumn clean” in a local care home,
charity shop, school, chreche etc.

13. Teach older people how to use their mobile phones or email

14. Set up a compost in your school, talk to the other students about the benefits of such a scheme, encourage them to comp[ost at home

15. Paint pictures for a retirement home in art class, make new curtains for an older person in Home Ec.

16. Host an youth information day in your school for all students with information on all of the local youth services in your area.

College Students
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17. Give tours of your college to school children

18. Give talks to schools about drugs, HIV, peer guidence

19. Clear out an illigal dump, plant grass seeds, spring bulbs

20. Team up with an organisation giving older people’s homes a make
over

21. Paint a mural at a childcare centre, cmmunity centre or care home

22. Organise talks on specific issues inviting NGO working on the topics (disability, world conflicts, environment…)

23. Host an exhibition on the 26th having given disposable cameras to homeless people, scouts, older, other organisations OR give
disposable cameras to volunteers to capture the work that they do

24. Call into a charity shop and ask them what you can do in advance of the day

25. Host an intercultural lunch with overseas students - invite them to bring their national dish

26. Help organisations like Camara ship computers to developing
countries (http://www.camara.ie/volunteer/index.php)

Older People
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27. Nursing Homes/Hospitals/Residential Homes and services could offer the opportunity to Irish Dancing schools/Music Group/Local branch of Ceoltas Ceoltori Eireann/Youth Clubs to come in on GIASD for music/dancing/entertainment for their residents.

28. Day Centre could host a coffee morning for another group eg mothers and toddlers or a school group

29. Organise a fundraising sale of cakes and bric a brac/ or coffee
morning in church hall

30. Offer to read to children in schools and libraries

31. Bake a cake or pick flowers (from your own garden!!) and deliver them to a local Nursing home or hospital to brighten their day!

32. Knit for a charity shop

Families
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33. Clean up rubbish on your local beach, park or wildlife area

34. Arrange with your local cultural centre or refugee centre to twin with another family

35. Does someone in your neighbourhood need help- offer to mow
someone’s lawn, fix someone’s broken furniture or help someone with their grocery shopping

36. Donate clothes and old toys to a charity shop

37. Buy and donate school books to the local women’s refuge

38. Organise a fun day out for children with disabilities and give their
carers some respite

39. Host a multicultural cooking exchange with other families in your local area

40. Take a trip to your local animal sanctuary and give some TLC to some needy animals for the day.


Organisations
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41. Family Resource Centres/Schools/Childcare facilities could create a“Book of Hope”; “Happy Book”; “Healing Book” by having a number
of voluntary artists/creative people on site to help children/families to
design a page of a book with a drawing/message/story that could
form part of a book. The book could then be sent up to the local
hospitals children’s ward to cheer up sick children. Local Carers
Association (or similar group) could offer a “respite” afternoon to a
family carer by encouraging local volunteers to take over the care for a
few hours

42. Local volunteer groups who are already interacting with volunteers
from VC’s could be encouraged to run a “Buddy a volunteer”
programme for the day whereby an additional person goes along with
the existing volunteer and gets a feel for what the role they do involves
– it could encourage more volunteers to the group as well as allowing
people to be gently introduced to the opportunity by an existing
volunteer. Would work well with eg. Meals on Wheels volunteers

43. Computer Clubhouse/Multi media youth organisations could volunteer to show other youth (or maybe Seniors who want to improve their IT skills) how to do a specific media project. Maybe make a simple video which participants could take home at the end of the day… the YMCA in the U.S. ran similar day-long workshop.

Professionals
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44. IT professionals could give some of their time to teach people with intellectual disabilities some IT skills

45. Professionals could offer to talk to Transition Year Students about
career choices and work experience

46. Yoga teachers could teach relaxation techniques to young parents,older people, students and other people who suffer from stress

47. Organise a Sports Day for people in the community where you work

48. HR professionals/companies could host a workshop on interview
techniques or CV writing for a local back-to-work programme, adult
ed class, Transition year students etc.

50. Holistic Therapy Fair for Active Age Groups