Full time volunteering

Léargas / EU's Erasmus+ programme support our full-time volunteering.

Image of a Cork SImon full-time volunteer working with a service user
We have 22 full-time volunteers at any one time from Ireland and around the world giving their time, skills and experience to Cork Simon Community.

Volunteering full-time at Cork Simon is a rewarding experience. Every full-time volunteer leaves us at the end of their term with life-long friends, precious memories and unforgettable experiences.

Full-time volunteers at Cork Simon:

Commit 35 hours per week for at least 9 months – many stay longer.
Work alongside staff at our Emergency and Housing services.
Are offered accommodation and a weekly allowance.
Participate fully in all Cork Simon activities, including training and development. All Full-Time Volunteers participate in a Technological University Dublin (TUD) Certificate in Volunteering, which is delivered in-house at Cork Simon.

A number of Cork Simon's full-time volunteers are funded through the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). Find out more here:

European Solidarity Corps

Interested in becoming a full-time volunteer at Cork Simon Community?

Register your interest here:

Full-Time Volunteer Application

Cork Simon Community processes application for full-time volunteers at Cork Simon Communities.

Latest

Home Truth: Rents in Cork unsustainably high for average earner.

Rents in Cork continue to increase - up over 10% in the city in the twelve months to Qtr 3 2023. Following our recent Home Truths papers - Single Homelessness in the Southwest and Vacant Homes in Cork, Sophie Johnston explores how single households in private rented accommodation are at increasing risk of homelessness, while single households stuck in emergency accommodation are faced with the near impossibility of private rented housing offering them a route out of homelessness.
Tax Form
Vacant Homes in Cork: Vacant Homes Tax and international comparisons.

With housing supply - and the associated cost of housing, continuing to be a significant factor in our long-running homelessness crisis, we must explore every option to increase supply. In our second Home Truths paper: Vacant Homes in Cork, Sophie Johnston reviews measures some other jurisdictions have implemented to address vacancy as one way of improving housing supply. She summarises them here. Are there lessons for us to learn as we grapple with our own housing crisis?
Vacant Homes in Cork: Long-term vacant rental properties in the midst of a housing crisis.

As we publish our second Home Truths paper - Vacant Homes in Cork, which explores long-term vacancy in particular, Sophie Johnston summarises the report's key findings on rental homes. With a focus on stemming the flow of people being pushed into homelessness and creating more routes for people to exit homelessness quickly, do the findings present an opportunity to improve the supply of much-needed private rented homes?

Part time volunteering

Volunteers founded Cork Simon almost 50 years ago and remain at the heart our community. Part-time volunteers are active in everything Cork Simon does, from sitting on our Board of Directors to helping us to fundraise to supporting people to develop life skills such as cooking, literacy and numeracy.

Work with us

Cork Simon Community is committed to equality of opportunity. We are currently recruiting for a Senior Corporate Partnerships Officer, Casual Support Worker, Housing Officer (Full-Time / Permanent) and a Tenancy Management Co-ordinator (Waterford).
Factsheets

View the latest monthly emergency accommodation figures for Cork and the Southwest from the Department of Housing, and download the Cork Homeless Forum Directory of Services for people experiencing homelessness and their Guide to Emergency Homeless Services in Cork.
Donate

Please give now to help provide a Christmas dinner, a safe, warm place to stay and a new start
Christmas Jumper Day

Will you hold a Cork Simon Christmas Jumper Day so we can be there for every man and woman turning to us for help this Christmas?
No one wants their child to grow up to be homeless at Christmas."
Sign-up today - it's More Than a Gift.
Get Help

Details of services and contact numbers if you are experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless.
Part time volunteering

Volunteers founded Cork Simon almost 50 years ago and remain at the heart our community. Part-time volunteers are active in everything Cork Simon does, from sitting on our Board of Directors to helping us to fundraise to supporting people to develop life skills such as cooking, literacy and numeracy.
Services team

Key contacts for our range of services, including Emergency, Outreach, Housing and Housing First, Addiction and Aftercare, and Personal Development services.
Sponsor a Room

As a Room Sponsor you will be helping to save lives. You give a monthly gift, at an amount you can afford, to provide someone who is homeless with a safe room of their own, everything that goes with that, and a pathway to move into independent living. Believing in people.
High-support housing

Our High-Support Houses throughout Cork provide intensive levels of round-the-clock care every day for men and women whose health and other personal support needs are such that living independently is not currently sustainable.
Emergency shelter

Our Emergency Shelter on Anderson’s Quay, in the heart of Cork’s city centre, provides round-the-clock temporary accommodation and one-to one support. Our emergency shelter supports men and women over 18 years of age.

Homeless watch

778 men, women and children were depending on emergency accommodation in Cork and Kerry in September 2023.

Our Emergency Shelter is overflowing. People are staying longer because they have no other options.

Rents in Cork continue to rise while supply remains at an all-time low; Rent Supplement & Housing Assistance Payments fall well-short of current market rents.

See the figures behind the crisis in our regularly updated Homeless Watch Read more

Sponsor a Room

As a Room Sponsor you will be helping to save lives. You give a monthly gift, at an amount you can afford, to provide someone who is homeless with a safe room of their own, everything that goes with that, and a pathway to move into independent living. Believing in people. Read more

50 Faces of Cork Simon

50 Years in the making, decades in the refining. 50 Faces reflecting the thousands of men and women who make us what we are: people believing in people. These are their words, their stories, our experience. Read more

Annual Impact Report 2022

During 2022, we offered care and support, dignity and hope to 1,370 people - a 33% increase compared to 2021. As the last of the Covid restrictions lifted, we quickly restored all our services and responded to additional demand by increasing capacity. Read more