Volunteering Opportunities
There are a range of ways to get involved with L’Arche as a volunteer.
This includes anything from being a full-time residential live in volunteer, to helping once a week with one of our work projects, to helping us with fundraising. We have also provided short-term work placements or internships for students who are pursuing a career in social care, special needs education, or other related fields.
Please contact our Volunteer Coordinator in the office (volunteers@larchebelfast.org.uk) for more information.
Live In Volunteering
Together with the L’Arche Cor
e Members the ‘Live In Assistants’ are at the heart of our home life in the community and their contribution is invaluable. We welcome applications from anyone over 18 years of age, from anywhere in the world. As a member of the L’Arche household you will accompany core members in their activities of daily life, helping them as needed, discovering who they are, and developing a relationship with them and with other members of the household and the community. You will also be expected to participate in and assist the core members with all the activities associated with ‘homemaking’- shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, and preparing celebrations. Assistants usually make an initial commitment of a year.
Read Will’s story as a live-in volunteer in the Belfast L’Arche Community.
Local Volunteering
If you live locally and would like to become involved with L’Arche we have many volunteering opportunities.
- If you have administration skills your help would be appreciated in the L’Arche office.
- If you have a few hours to spare each week you could become a befriender to one of our Core Members.
- Fundraising is an on-going task and your help would be much appreciated.
- Root Soup is a social enterprise that involves people who have learning disabilities and people who are homeless working together to learn and grow. It is a dynamic social enterprise that is part of an overall ‘Field to Fork’ initiative, offering training and employment opportunities across the food chain i.e. growing, preparation and catering.
- In Other Words is an art project begun by L’Arche Belfast. The group currently meets two afternoons a week for two hours to work on a variety of projects: individual pieces, commissioned works, and market crafts. Participants use a variety of media – paint, clay, mosaic, household materials – to connect through art.
- Green Buds is a group of people of varying ages and ability-levels who meet every week at a large allotment at Vista Allotments in the Castlereagh hills. If you enjoy gardening, this could be the project for you!
- L’Arche holds many community events and the help of volunteers is invaluable.
