One of the employees in the Ernst & Young office had this to say about the week:

“… there is a great buzz amongst the people who worked on the job. The satisfaction that comes from doing something like this is hard to match. On behalf of everyone here, could I just take the opportunity to thank you for arranging this opportunity and for all the support that you provided. We are all looking forward to future volunteering opportunities with Serve the City.”

We’re also very grateful to our partnering organisations, like ALONE, the HSE, VCI, and Ballyfermot Social Intervention Initiative, who work so hard on behalf of the people and services they represent and advocate for across Dublin.

In the midst of serving each day, we had the chance to meet and have some great conversations with neighbours, friends, and family members of the people we were serving.  We were reminded that, at the end of the day, people and relationships in our communities are the primary thoroughfares that hope, care, and compassion travel along to strengthen our city.  We anticipate many more opportunities for those thoroughfares to be strengthened by volunteer service in the months to come!

The second weekend in October, we hosted a corporate group of eight volunteers from a large Dublin-based company.  The team did a fantastic job of clearing out an overgrown garden for a needy family in Ballybrack.  They were delighted to help, knowing that their hours of service were also an encouragement to other neighbours who had reached out to support this family in a number of ways.

If you’d like to get involved in our next Third Saturday S3RVE Day, be sure to sign up for our newsletter and respond to that e-mail when it arrives in your inbox.  It’s as easy as clicking “reply” and typing “Count me in!”

At St. Augustines school in Blackrock, we painted the interior of one of the dorm houses while some of our volunteers assisted the Shanganagh Community Development Project with their summer kids’ club.  The rest of our volunteers were scattered across Dublin throughout the week, gardening and painting in areas like Crumlin, Sheriff Street, Beggar’s Bush, and Drumcondra.

We’re grateful for the partnerships with other organizations who helped us find significant opportunities to serve, as well as the volunteers to get the work done.  Here are just a few:

ALONE
St. Augustine’s School
Volunteer Centres Ireland
Shanganagh Summer Proejct

In early July, we joined forces with a number of youth works organizations around Dublin for this year’s Urban Soul event.  About 120 young people (14-18 yrs old) were sent out across the city to serve on 14 different service projects, from painting and cleaning in schools to gardening for elderly residents to painting and sorting clothes in homeless shelters.  Urban Soul is a phenomenal initiative driven by a number of strategic partnerships with churches, schools, local authorities, and organisations such as Catholic Youth Care, ACET, Lourdes Daycare Centre, Mothers’ Union, and many others.  Serve the City count it a valuable privilege to be involved with Urban Soul!

Click on the “zone” links below to see interactive Google maps of the general areas in which Urban Soul were serving.  Also below is an RTE news clip about Urban Soul.

GOLD ZONE

GREEN ZONE

RED ZONE

BLUE ZONE

Each of these teams from Habitat for Humanity are made up of volunteers who raise funding to go to various countries around the developing world to build homes for disadvantaged and often marginalised people.  We’re grateful to Habitat Ireland for sending these volunteers to serve in local communities here in Dublin too, in recognition of the opportunities to serve right on their front door step, as well as around world!