Simon Women’s Aid Project CLG | Dundalk Simon Community

Simon Women’s Project

Simon Women’s Aid Project (SWAP) is a collaborative initiative between a number of significant social care and local development organisations to form one of the largest and most successful Community Employment projects in the Dundalk area.

Having originally started in 1995 as a joint project to promote and maintain essential services for Dundalk Simon and Women’s Aid Dundalk, SWAP has grown and developed to its current format of incorporating five like-minded sub-sponsors – Dundalk Simon, Women’s Aid Dundalk, Rape Crisis North East, Dundalk Counselling Centre and Turas Counselling Services, as well as Dundalk Chamber of Commerce who officially joined the project in 2009.

SWAP strives towards the dual goal of helping participants who have been on the live register to access valuable, high-quality work experience and training opportunities, while also helping ensure that the sub-sponsors have the capacity to deliver vital services locally. The project makes a significant annual contribution to the local economy in terms of wages; support for Dundalk based training companies and businesses as well as promoting a number of local development initiatives.

Mission Statement

SWAP seeks to work towards the upskilling and employment of each participant by providing and sourcing work and training opportunities in order to engage in valued work in the community. The success of the SWAP project will not be measured solely in terms of employment attained by participants but by the solid foundations that are put in place for employment to be a real objective.

The collective SWAP ethos is very much about support and empowerment, both in relation to the participants that gain a placement on the scheme and the wider local community that the sub-sponsors serve. Participants get the opportunity to add formal qualifications to their experience and many have gained major awards in a variety of disciplines from Social Care to Accounting, Community Studies to Business Management. This has ensured a very healthy progression rate on the scheme and many participants have gained long-term employment as a result of their efforts and experiences. As a CE project SWAP receives all of its main funding from the Department of Social Protection and has an allocation of 46 positions in a variety of roles such as administration, reception, caretaking, cooking, cleaning, advocacy and support. The sub-sponsors and supervisors ensure that every participant who gains a position receives all the support and nurturing they need to develop personally and professionally and this, in turn, helps the project to support the local community – particularly those that are marginalized or vulnerable. Given the short-term and temporary nature of CE placements vacancies arise on the scheme regularly and SWAP are always delighted to meet with eligible and suitably motivated applicants to discuss participation options.

Current vacancies on the scheme are listed below and for further information or to apply, please contact Paul or Yvonne at our office at 94A Park Street Dundalk. Ph. 042 9328823, email swapdundalk@gmail.com

Job Description

Sub Sponsor/Role location	Job role	Number of positions
Women’s Aid Dundalk	Support Worker – Women’s Aid refuge	2 (Garda Clearance required)
Rape Crisis North East / Carrick Road Dundalk	Admin Support / Reception	2 (Garda Clearance required)
Dundalk Chamber of Commerce	Admin Support / Promotion	2
Dundalk Counselling Centre	Housekeeper	1