Would you like to be a volunteer ‘Study Buddy’ at the Youth and Education Services for Refugees and Migrant’s Homework club?

N.B. We are currently looking for English language tutors as well as tutors in Maths, Biology and Physics.

Our Study Buddy Homework Club offers Separated Children Seeking Asylum or family reunified children and other migrant children a safe and supportive environment to study and to receive help with their school work. The young person typically brings in their homework or areas of work they need assistance with and the volunteers help them with their assignments as well as trying to help them understand the theories/ concepts of the particular subject. Most students request help with specific subjects, while others need more general help with English across the curriculum. It is important to remember that volunteers are not expected to be teachers and ‘know everything’.

Here is some more practical information about our Homework Club: 

1. The students are generally aged between 15-19 years and are all separated children and young people in the care of the Tusla or they have join their families who already where here.
2. Most of them are still awaiting a decision on their asylum cases and are living in lodge homes or host families.
3. All of the students who use our service do so of their own accord. They sign themselves up and as a result are extremely motivated.
4. Our programme offers a safe and friendly environment for the young people to do their homework. It runs every Monday and Wednesday evening from 5-8.30pm.
5. Within these times students work with a volunteer generally on a one-to-one basis for an hour or so. The study session is always supervised by a CDETB staff member. 
6. We are located in the city centre reach.
7. Although help is needed in all the Leaving Certificate subjects, we find students are in particular need of help with maths, science subjects and English.
8. Before volunteers can start they must complete a confidential volunteer application form as well as a Garda Vetting application form This is normal procedure to comply with child protection guidelines.
9. While we would hope to match volunteers with a student as soon as possible there can sometimes be delays in matching the students’ requests with the volunteers’ skills. Generally we receive more requests from students as the year progresses, especially after the Christmas exams. We recruit volunteers on-going throughout the school year.
10. All of our past ‘Study Buddies’ have found this to be a very positive and rewarding experience. It is a great opportunity to meet students from all over the world, and in the process get to know about their countries and culture.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Please see below for contact details :

Manuela Moreno
Study Buddy Homework Club
CDETB, YES Programme for Migrants and Refugees.
Parnell Adult Learning Centre
1 Parnell Square 
Dublin 1
tel: 0871328274 (off Monday and Tuesday)
email: manuela.moreno@parnell.cdetb.ie