Intreo Jobs Week

Above picture shows Tánaiste Joan Burton lauching Intreo Jobs Week 2015

This week sees Intreo Jobs Week kick off around the country from today 28 September until Friday 02 October.  As part of the Intreo funded services we will be in Tuam on Friday of this week at the Jobs Fair in the Árd Rí Hotel so if you are there please come over and say hello to Mary who will be able to answer any questions you have.

We have attached the Intreo Jobs Week supplement from the Irish Independent dated 24 September 2015 which has further information on the Intreo services to job seekers.

Have a great week!

Confidential Shredding Specialists mark 20th Anniversary with Syrian crisis fundraiser

Confidential Shredding Specialists Ireland (CSSI) will be marking its 20th anniversary by holding a free document destruction day for the public on Friday October 9th in Hanley’s Unit, Claregalway, Galway, and raising money for GOAL’s Syrian appeal.

Founded in 1995, CSSI is the largest document disposal company in Connaught and has remained a family run business in its 20 years of operation.

The document destruction day will be held in conjunction with GOAL’s Jersey Day with the company sporting their favourite jerseys and asking the public to make donations in exchange for the destruction of their documents.

Peter Jordan, Managing Director of CSSI said;

“We are 20 years in business and we want to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the years.

By marking our anniversary in conjunction with raising money for GOAL, people can have an enjoyable day, while making a valued and worthwhile contribution to the poorest and the most vulnerable. We are asking the public to donate to GOAL and in exchange we will offer our paper shredding services to the public for free and of course we are encouraging everyone to wear their jersey on the day.”

All funds raised on the day will go towards GOAL’s vital work including Syria and across the 18 other countries in the developing world where the aid agency is implementing emergency relief and development programmes.

To find out more about the event, contact Katrina Phillips Foran on 091 - 799 297 or Katrina@connaughtwasterecycling.com

Accessibility in the Clayton Hotel

Making places accessible is  important as it provides people with dignity, self-respect, self-confidence and an ability to make decisions and go places without being hampered by someone else’s schedule or availability.

We were delighted when the Clayton Hotel invited Harry and Pauline  to join them in celebrating their recent success at the JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards where the Clayton were selected as winners in the category of ‘Disability Accessibility’.  

The Clayton Hotel were also crowned ‘Overall Winners of the JCI Galway Friendly Business Awards 2015’‘and will proceed to the national JCI finals in Donegal in October. 

If you would like to contact the Clayton regarding their accessible facilities you can Alan Dooley , Meeting & Events Executive at sales.galway@claytonhotels.com 

IPS Supported Employment

We are delighted to have completed the  training and initial  planning stages for a new collaborative project with three other EmployAbility companies and HSE Departments  in Mayo, Cavan / Monaghan and West Cork and which will be funded by Genio and Department of Social Protection.   The project is the idea of Shari McDaid at  Mental Health Reform who applied for the initial funding and put together this two year project plan.

Together we will be working on an   Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of Supported Employment which is specifically designed for people who are managing a mental health difficulty and are not job ready. We were delighted to be able to receive training from Miles Renaldi who is the Head of Recovery and Social Inclusion, at South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust.  Miles is  one of the worlds most renowned experts in the field of IPS and has worked throughout Europe and the US to support local IPS implementation plans.

The above picture shows L to R:  Miriam (HSE) Charlene (EAG), Shari and LIsa (Mental Health Reform), and Miles (NHS) in Athlone 29 June 2015 for the final phase of planning at stage one of the project

New Website

We are really excited to have our brand new website online this week.  The site is fully mobile and tablet / ipad friendly so you can browse anywhere, anytime.  The site will also allow us to share news and keep everyone updated via social media with just a few clicks.  

A huge big THANK YOU to our board member Mark Quick for building the site, and to the rest of the guys at   9th Impact for helping him with it.  We know they are working really hard in their Mobile Game Development Studio at the moment so we really appreciate all the help they have given us.

OnePageCRM donation for life

When you ask any of the team here nowadays what is the best thing about working at EmployAbility Galway, they will probably tell you OnePageCRM.  We used to spend loads of time writing and typing memos, creating excel sheets so we could work together on job searches and keep information up to date.  No more!

Michael Fitzgerald from OnePageCRM decided a few months ago to donate us a free OnePageCRM account for life, because he really likes what we do and wants to make it easier for us to find jobs for people with disabilities.  Thanks Michael!  We have been testing it out over the last few months to see how it works for us.

Putting it plainly, OnePageCRM rocks!  We have saved so much time, and cut out so much of the work that adds no value.  We are able to concentrate on getting things done, and follow a list of actions without distractions.  We don't know how we ever managed without it.

And to answer the important question does it work?  Absolutely, 38 people placed between Jan and May of this year, need we say more!  If you are a non profit check out OnePageCRM Power of Action Program which is a FREE OnePageCRM account for qualifying Non Profits

Recent Appointment

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Charlene Butler who has joined our team of Employment Facilitators today.  Charlene holds a BA in English and History, from NUI Galway.  She enjoys getting people to discover and realise their employment potential. Charlene is an integral part of the community highlighted by her voluntary work with Simon Community and Foróige's Big Brother Big Sister programme.  She thrives on continuous learning and development and was recently elected to the executive board of Foróige National Council.  She believes Value is paramount and practises this philosophy to benefit both the employer and the employee. Charlene's client base is in Galway City.

You can contact Charlene at 087 616 9691 or charlene@employabilitygalway.ie 

NSAI Certification 2014

It's great to get an early Christmas present!  We were delighted to get official notice today that the national network of 23 EmployAbility companies funded by Department of Social Protection have received NSAI Excellence Through People accreditation.   A sample of the companies around the country were assessed with the final assessment carried out in the Galway offices which included an assessment of  EmployAbility Galway and our colleagues in Roscommon.  

The above picture shows a  group of the team members from Galway and Roscommon with Eugene  from NSAI at the EmployAbility Galway offices in Galway Technology Centre on the day of our assessment earlier this month 

RECENT APPOINTMENT

We are delighted to announce the appointment of JP Kavanagh as our Part -time Accounting Administrator. JP's background is working as an accounting and payroll technician in the SME sector. He holds a B.comm (Hons) and is a qualified IATI accounting & payroll technician. JP is currently completing ACCA professional examinations. He is also very active as a volunteer in the community.  

You can contact JP at 091 755 235 or jp@employabilitygalway.ie

Offical Opening of new offices

There was a lot of early morning excitement at  Galway Technology Centre, Mervue Business Park, Wellpark Road, Galway on Monday 24th of November 2014, when we took over the mezzanine area to celebrate the opening of our fab new offices at Unit 9A.  We were joined by so many people who have supported us over the years, including clients, employers, recruitment companies and representatives from political and business communities in Galway.  We had a fabulous turnout with about 80 to 100 people attending and we were delighted to have so many of our new neighbours popping by as well.  

We had two fantastic ladies speak on the morning  to whom we are really grateful.  

Amanda Gibbons is the HR Manager with Nestors SuperValu and she spoke about their working relationship with us from an employers perspective.  Nestors are fantastic employers who have been a joy to work with over the years since 2006.  Thank you Amanda !

Rosemary Sweeney is one of our clients who spoke about how work has changed her life.  Rosemary was able to reach the audience with the personal story of her journey in a way that we never could.  Thank you Rosemary !

We are also really grateful to Derek Nolan TD and the local team at Department of Social Protection who worked together to get Minister of State at Department of Social Protection Kevin Humphrey’s TD to attend and officially open 9A .  We were really chuffed when  the  Minister later spoke to Galway Bay FM’s Keith Finnegan describing us as  “a template for success and an ideal example of the standard we should expect from similar services around the country” and that he hoped what he had experienced today could be used around the rest of Ireland as a roadmap for success.  The full press release is available here

Most of all we would really like to thank our Board for all the time they have given voluntarily to us over the years and for all the support they gave us on the morning.