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!

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

We’ll be hosting a few small visiting teams from abroad during that week during the daytime, but we are also planning to extend those service projects into the evening for our local volunteers who will not be able to get away from their day jobs. If you are interested in joining us during our ‘SERVE DAYS OF SUMMER’ week, please let us know by clicking on the ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Volunteer’ tab above!

During our week-long summer events over the last several years, Serve the City volunteers have helped paint local schools, and do gardening and other DIY projects for local people in need.  This year, we’ll be looking for the same types of opportunities.  If you know of someone in need who could benefit from a group of sensitive and compassionate volunteers, please let us know by filling out the brief form in the ‘tell us a need‘ section of this site.

And we hope you’ll be able to join us this summer for that week-long intensive opportunity to serve your city and help make Dublin a better place to live, one kind act at a time!