Would You Like To Help Children and Young People Create New Stories? Volunteer at Fighting Words!
What does Fighting Words do?
Opened in January 2009, the centre offers free story-writing workshops for primary school students in the mornings, creative writing tutoring for secondary students in the afternoons, and occasional workshops for various ages in the evenings and at weekends. We also run free week-long summer camps in July and August.
The workshops at Fighting Words run by teams of volunteer writing tutors in a relaxed, creative environment.
What kind of opportunities does FW have for volunteers?
We are looking for anyone who just enjoys working with children - experience in creative writing is not necessary! You do not need to be a writer or a teacher to volunteer, we are looking for good listeners.
Below is a list- but it's not exhaustive - of what our volunteers do:
Primary Level Workshops: Imagine that you are 6-12 years old and you enter a colourful, magical place and spend two hours writing your very own book. The daily team of tutors work with classes of primary school students who produce a book together. There are opportunities for people who like to write stories, people who like to draw (all our books are illustrated) and people who like to work with small groups of students to encourage their creativity.
Secondary Level Workshops: Imagine being the person who inspires and encourages young people to express themselves in ways they did not think they could. At Fighting Words, you can. We run creative writing workshops for second level students twice per week. We need volunteers to help us run these two-hour workshops as well as providing one-to-one tutoring support to students working on individual projects.
Summer Camps: Imagine that you are 8-17 years old and can spend a week making puppets, writing a new song or creating a new superhero. That is what we do during July and August. We are looking for people to take a lead in designing our camps as well as volunteer tutors to provide help and support for the week in a small group setting.
When does Fighting Words need volunteers? At what times?
Volunteering with Fighting Words is completely flexible - we use a secure online calendar so you sign up for the sessions that suit your schedule. We provide training for volunteers and this will run throughout the year, usually twice per month.
As many of our programmes take place during the school day, we need people who are available on weekdays. Even if you only have a few hours to spare in the evenings and weekends, however, we would like to hear from you.
How can I find out more?
If you want to join us to volunteer or take part or just to get more information, visit our web site, email us or ring Sara Bennett, Manager, on 01 894 4576.
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