Grow Remote in Tipperary

Remote work has presented myriad opportunities for rural and regional communities to grow and regenerate. With the support of an Irish social enterprise, communities in Munster now have access to fully-funded training especially for community activists.

Grow Remote is a non-profit on a mission to make remote employment more visible and accessible. The Grow Remote community supports local people known as ‘changemakers’ to create social impact through their nationwide network of chapters. These changemakers run local meetups, seminars and parties to promote the community impact that remote workers can have locally.

Beginning in mid-March, Grow Remote will run their fully-funded Local Leader Training, and this time they are focusing on communities across Munster. The Local Leader Training supports individual remote employees to lead a local chapter. It involves three weekly live interactive sessions with the Grow Remote team at 7pm on March 15, 22 and 29, as well as a self-paced online e-learning programme involving six modules (roughly one hour's learning per module) to complete in your own time over six weeks.

Community Manager at Grow Remote, Dónal Kearney, says: “Usually, 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 supports and the opportunity to change their locality for good.”

The Grow Remote Community Playbook (now available via growremote.ie/changemakers/) is the result of four years of listening and learning from remote workers who have taken action to develop their local communities. Many of these employees work with leading remote-first companies - such as Flipdish and Shopify - and some of Ireland’s most well-known employers - eBay, Vodafone, ESB and Liberty Insurance.

There are infinite ways of being a changemaker with Grow Remote depending on one's expertise or availability. The Grow Remote community is full of creative changemakers who have made a local impact.

Paul Ellingstad in Ennis (Clare) works closely with local business networks to promote the benefits of remote employment and connect with resources to help them get the most out of hybrid and remote teams. Eimear O'Donoghue runs social connection evenings for remote workers in Waterford in the form of walking tours, collective dinners and drinks. Biddy Hayes in Bruff (Limerick) led a successful campaign to turn a disused Bank of Ireland building in the village into a digital hub over the next few years. Colum O’Connell, chapter lead on Valentia Island (Kerry), helps locals get remote jobs and move back to Valentia and continues to attract new families to the island through remote employment. Through a Grow Remote chapter event in Skibbereen (Cork), remote advocate Tríona O’Sullivan helped a local job seeker find remote employment with Shopify.

Tracy Keogh, Co-Founder of Grow Remote, commented about the organisation’s commitment to its social mission: “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. We want to see lasting change in Munster so that's why we're supporting local changemakers with this fully-funded training.”

Dónal Kearney, Community Manager at Grow Remote explains: “The Local Leader Training is now open. Completion of the training entitles you to become a chapter lead and apply for the €1,000 Grow Remote Gommunity Fund. Apply now at growremote.ie/local-leader-training/.”