Volunteers needed in Dublin city

suas

There's a new project starting in Dublin and we need a lot of volunteers to help run it!

Volunteers have to be over 18, and have an interest in mentoring. Children from Transition Year will be coming into The Bridge to College in the city centre for a week at a time, where they take part in collaborative and creative learning projects- often involving technology.

Suas have piloted this programme in a few colleges and it has worked well enough to justify scaling it up this year. We expect to have 600 students going through The Bridge to College in the next two years.

Volunteer mentors don't have to be very techy, but an interest in some aspect of technology is required (the fact that you're even reading this in a forum probably means that you pass that test!).

How much time would it involve? Well, a little training on a Saturday or two, and then the project itself will run from Tuesday-Friday for 5 weeks, and there will be 3 x 5 week runs between now and next summer. To create a good environment for the students, we don't want the mentors to be changing every single day.

That means that we will prefer people that are able to donate either a week at a time or one day a week for each of the five weeks. We are loooking for people that can make a small commitment to this project, as opposed to just dropping in for an afternoon, as we are looking to create a beneficial learning enviroment and that needs trust between the mentors and the students.

More information on the project and the application process are at http://www.suas.ie/applyb2c.html

monkeyfudge

Sounds interesting.

I run a not-for-profit computer training centre on the North side of the city myself.

I´ll check my dairy and see if I can give you some of my time.

pretty-in-pink

I should be able to help, jst need to check my diary

cormie

Something I could do if it was on a day per day basis, can't commit to a full week/specific day for 5 weeks though I'm afraid:( Best of luck with it.

The_Conductor

cormie wrote:

Something I could do if it was on a day per day basis, can't commit to a full week/specific day for 5 weeks though I'm afraid:( Best of luck with it.

Ditto- I can't get time off work very handily, but would be more than happy to do a day here or a day there.

Sorry!

Shane

the_syco

suas wrote: »

The Bridge to College

WTF is this "Bridge" thing?

suas wrote: »

That means that we will prefer people that are able to donate either a week at a time or one day a week for each of the five weeks.

Are you open Saturdays? I can do it after Christmas if you are (I've stuff happening every 2nd or 3rd week before Christmas, so I won't be able to then).

/edit
Just saw the "email thing closes @ 5pm Friday 12th"... which is in a few hours

edanto

Yeah, we've had a bit of trouble getting the word out and the closing date has come just at the same time as we were able to make a splash!!

We're on a really tight schedule, but I'll have to check if the guys that are working on it can extend the deadline. At the same time, you'll have the application form filled out in two or three sittings if you can spare the time!

Dev just told me a few hours ago that he was able to bung it up as an announcement and I've been stunned by the traffic - thanks mate! And cheers for the earlier help on this project.

We have some other needs for this project that we'd be grateful for help with

- Looking to source 6 laptops that are capable of running well on battery and medium spec grapics - anyone have any contacts? Trinity are going to setup and maintain all the IT infrastructure, since we're basically executing this on behalf of TAP and CRITE.
- Other hardware such as a smart board, projection & multimedia tools. Graphics tablets - what have you. We have a shopping list and a bit of cash but the more we can save the better.
- Anyone with experience of Salesforce customisation would be helpful in setting up the database that will eventually streamline several processes in Suas

Those that might want to throw a few bob into the kitty can click through the flashy new button that Darren @ 2bscene just popped up on our main site.

And then the problems we've had getting the word out about this project - if anyone can volunteer in a PR capacity, we have a shedload of fun stuff coming down the road and we're all pretty busy delivering those programmes.

pretty-in-pink

Oh PR i can deffo do

edanto

Closing date extended until Monday @ 11am!

suas

pretty-in-pink wrote: »

Oh PR i can deffo do

Thanks! We'll have to have a talk about that. Certainly need the help of someone with good connections. Can be tough getting good news in the media.