Volunteer with us
Crooked House is a charity (a non-governmental organisation devoted to the public good). It is also a company limited by guarantee. Our work depends on a small team of staff and a large group of volunteers. Together, they make a huge and positive impact on the lives of young people in our region.
Our national volunteers come to us from third level student placement programmes, mainly Maynooth University’s Applied Social Studies department. Other national volunteers come up through our workshops and programmes and remain on as leaders and assistants.
Our international volunteers are supported by the European Union, through two different programmes. They are the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) and the Erasmus+ Student Traineeship. The ESC programme is for volunteers from within and from outside of the European Union. The Student Traineeship programme is only for EU countries, and for students at third level undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Our international volunteers are all involved in theatre or cultural administration. They are people who have experience of making theatre with young people or community groups, or have studied theatre and education, or cultural/arts administration, or a theatre-related subject.
Here you can watch videos made by our international volunteers over the years. And you can then click on European Solidarity Corps or Student Traineeship below to find out more about each , and to start the application process.
European Solidarity Corps
This EU programme fund supports young people to travel aboard and volunteer with an organisation. It can also be used by young people in the organisation’s home country (in our case, in Ireland) to volunteer with us.
There are 5 places available for volunteers who can come from September to May each year. One or two of those places are for ‘in-country’ volunteers (in other words, young people legally resident in Ireland who can volunteer with us).
Erasmus+ Student Traineeship
This programme is available to students at third level degree programmes in the EU and Türkiye. Students of theatre, cultural administration, acting, or any theatre-related subject, can come to Crooked House for a period of at least three months. The opportunity is open only between September and June each year (we do not offer placements for the summer months only). They can stay for up to a year. Usually, most students choose to come here for 6 months. Many decide to apply to come for three months, and while they are here, they request an extension to stay for another three months.
The Student Traineeship programme is managed entirely by the student’s university. Each university receives a budget from the EU annually to run its Erasmus programmes. Students then apply to be part of whatever Erasmus programme they would like to do. The university has a number of application procedures, forms to be completed, an English test, and a deadline each year by which you should apply. All this information is available from your university’s International Office or the Erasmus Office. Usually the deadline is in the Spring.
We accept student trainees in September/October and again in January/February. We do not accept trainees in the summer, unless they are extending their previous traineeship with us.