Worklink: another volunteer-led support for job-seekers

An expanding network of volunteers is providing help to job-seekers in Dublin, Limerick, Sligo, Athlone, Cork, Galway, and Waterford.

The Worklink project employs two paid staff in Dublin with most of the work being done by the volunteers.

Unemployed people are offered mentoring and work experience opportunities (eg through Jobbridge) as a step towards full-time employment.

The project has the backing of the INOU and this year Worklink won €50,000 and backroom support from Diageo through the Arthur Guinness Fund.

If you live in any of the areas listed and are interested, either in volunteering or in getting support to find suitable work experience, the project is worth approaching as it has direct links with a number of companies that appreciate its aims.

T: 01-2916603.

W: www.worklink.ie

The huge satisfaction in serving others - Karen Moroney, Volunteer at Clonakilty Job-seekers’ centre

Karen Moroney

INTERVIEW BY ROBERT MCNAMARA

Karen Moroney was unemployed at one stage and appreciated the support she got. She’s now doing the same for others by volunteering with Clonakilty Job-Seekers’ Centre which was set up under the LCDP. Her volunteering is something that’s important to her.

What are you reading at the moment?

I'm reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles. It's set way back in Victorian times and it's about a woman making her way in life.

What’s the last film you saw?

Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp.

Person you most admire?

I don't tend to admire people as such. I may admire actions that people take, but I don't have one particular person that I admire. I don't hold any one person up as a role model.

HUNDREDS OF BUSINESS STARTS AND JOBS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT

Thousands of people have been directly helped to set up in business or find suitable work since the start of this year, through the Local and Community Development Programme.

For instance, Donegal Local Development Company directly supported over 153 small family businesses to open up in the first 11 months of this year. That compares with 146 people who directly set up in small businesses upon finishing a course run by the Northside Partnership in Dublin.

Some companies focused on supporting people on the margins, for instance long-term unemployed people with mental health challenges, to better prepare for and find suitable work.

In our upcoming print edition, we have short reports from Cork, Dublin, Galway, Donegal and Laois showing how Local Development Companies are slowly but steadily getting people into business or helping them find suitable work. The courses and local programmes on offer are giving people opportunities they didn't have before.

These are jobs you don't hear about in IDA announcements, because they come about through the work of Local Development Companies, they usually involve the establishment of small or family businesses, and they're emerging one-by-one around the country.

Our reports indicate that thousands of people are benefitting and by that we mean finding work. The full tally should emerge in time through data-collection systems operating within the Programme.

- Allen Meagher, Editor

65,000 JOBS POSSIBLE FROM SOCIAL/COMMUNITY ENTERPRISES - REPORT

Community and social enterprise projects, if driven by the Government - could provide up to 65,000 jobs nationally, according to a report published in June, 2010, by the Task Force on Social Enterprise. You can download the full 16-page report here.

Read more on social enterprises on pages 19-21 of 'Changing Ireland' Issue 32 which features examples from Ireland, England and Scotland. As of now, that issue (our latest) is on our homepage.

Check out our upcoming Summer edition from more on Social and Community Enterprise - from how it should create jobs, to interviews with people working in Speedpak, a social enterprise company in north Dublin.