After 4 years of listening and innovating within the Grow Remote community, we’re excited to announce that we’re changing the way we’re changing Ireland.
On 19 October 2022, Grow Remote will launch its Changemakers programme alongside a new Community Fund (up to €1,000) and the upcoming Local Leader Training (23rd November) with the publication of its new Community Playbook. Download it now via our Changemakers page.
Where employment is truly remote, it enables employees to work, live and participate locally, no matter where they are.
Grow Remote was built by many people who donated their time and skills to the mission. In 2018, we had started to crowdsource everything from the jobs boards to poster designs and we made public our kit for building local communities free of charge via ChangeX.
This captured the spirit of the Meitheal, a tradition from rural Ireland where a community would come together in a time of need. The Meitheal is at the core of us.
As we went on, we found that knowledge and materials weren’t enough. There was a huge need to connect remote workers on the ground, so we started supporting local community leaders to facilitate weekly and monthly meetups that provided space for connection locally. This is how our chapter model was born.
We witnessed so many chapter successes.
Kat Slater, our chapter lead in Louisburgh (Mayo), helped a local job seeker secure a remote job with Automattic.
John Brett in Carlow designed and created our first-of-its-kind Jobs Board free of charge, allowing us to publicly advertise hundreds of remote jobs every month.
Colum O’Connell, Chapter Lead on Valentia Island (Kerry), helping locals get remote jobs and move back to Valentia and continues to attract new families to the island through remote employment.
As Chapter Lead in Westport, Bernard Joyce built Ireland’s largest pre-Covid community of remote workers by leading regular social events.
We grew from a volunteer group to an award-winning non-profit social enterprise. Throughout the pandemic, we have been exploring the next steps for the Grow Remote community.
In 2022, there are 218+ local community leaders building local communities in Ireland and beyond. This international growth is based on the idea that, by working together, we can change achieve one of three goals:
- (1) get local people employed remotely
- (2) attract remote workers to their area
- (3) foster social connections within the local community
The route to achieve each goal is slightly different, and that’s why we’re evolving our Changemakers programme beyond our chapter model. Just as the world of remote working has evolved, we realise it is now time for Grow Remote’s community model to evolve with it.
We understand that not every person who wants to create social impact locally has the time, energy and resources to lead their local chapter. Until now, individuals had no way of contributing to Grow Remote’s mission outside of the chapter model. Now they do.
The Changemakers programme supports 3 levels of engagement for achieving Grow Remote’s social mission of making remote employment visible and accessible.
From October 2022, changemakers are invited to get involved in Grow Remote as either Remote Advocates, Experts or Chapter Leads.
Remote Advocates are individuals who wish to fly the flag for remote work in their own unique way, using their individual talent and giving as much or as little time as they see fit. This impact may take the form of a simple conversation with a friend, a series of school talks, or a one-off jobs fair for remote workers. Register for the free Remote Advocates course now.
Chapter Leads are individuals with a deep investment in their local area and a drive to make sustainable grassroots change through remote employment. Grow Remote offers funding (up to €1,000 per chapter), one-to-one support and the opportunity to change their locality for good. Register for the Local Leader Training to become a Chapter Lead now.
Experts are people with an established expertise in the remote ecosystem or the future of work who wish to contribute their time towards Grow Remote’s mission. This may involve representing Grow Remote at an international conference, all expenses paid.
COMMUNITY FUND
Thanks to our successful community model over the past 4 years, we can already celebrate thousands of changemakers in hundreds of locations worldwide and we hope this announcement will further spread the social impact of remote employment by attracting Remote Advocates from all over the world.
Through our community work, we learned that lasting grassroots change requires strategic stakeholder engagement and it takes a commitment both from chapter leads – and from the Grow Remote team – to make this happen
Our chapter model needs to be more robust than it was in 2018, so we’re changing it and making €1,000 per chapter available via the Community Fund. It’s eligible to chapters with at least 6 months of local activity under their belt.
The Community Fund is now open to anyone interested in becoming a Grow Remote chapter lead. You can apply now at this link.
LOCAL LEADER TRAINING
We are always looking for new chapter leads, so if you think you have what it takes, please register for the upcoming Local Leader Training course on 23rd November 2022. It’s a free course delivered by the Grow Remote Community team and is the perfect opportunity to learn what you need to make a social impact locally and to connect with other local leaders.
You’ll find the details of the 6 self-paced modules at this link.
