Promoting health in your community

The key messages of the Irish Cancer Society’s Community Health Education Programme (CHEP) are:

• It is possible to reduce your risk of cancer by as much as 50% by making healthy lifestyle choices.
• Spotting a physical change early that could be cancer could save your life.

CHEP Volunteers from communities across Ireland have been trained to pass these messages on to their community through information stands or talks.  These events take place at local trading associations, shopping centre’s, community and sporting organisations, women’s and men’s groups, health fairs and local clubs and societies.

CHEP aims to increase the public’s knowledge and encourage a change in their behaviour to reduce their risk of cancer and help them spot changes early that could be cancer.  The focus is on cancers whose cause we know, and therefore in some cases, can be prevented.  We also look at the early signs to watch for and encourage people to know their body, what is normal for them, and check for change.  We also focus on less well known cancers that are specific to women or men, like cervical and ovarian cancer, or prostate and testicular.

If you are interested in joining our team of CHEP Volunteers we would be delighted to hear from you.

Who can become a CHEP Volunteer?

If you are passionate about getting positive messages out to adults from all backgrounds in your community and empowering them to make change in their lives this programme could be for you.  You don’t need to have medical training to become a CHEP volunteer; however a number of qualities are important, such as:

• Being able to give a talk to a group or provide information at a stand while sticking to the Irish Cancer Society CHEP messages
• Having good communication skills is a help, but training will be given in this area so a willingness to learn is vital
• Reliability and being able to organise and keep records
• Having time available in your schedule to attend events
• Having good links with your community, with ideas of where you could use your training to do a talk or information stand

The application process

1. Return a completed enrolment form (MS Word, 89KB) to the CHEP Co-ordinator, Irish Cancer Society (details below)
2. Attend for interview
3. Reference check

Once accepted for training, over a number of months, volunteers will attend:

1. Training 1: 2 full days
2. Shadow staff member at CHEP event
3. Training 2: 1 full day
4. Shadow staff member at CHEP event
5. Training 3: 1 full day

CHEP Training dates 2012

There is one remaining CHEP training session scheduled for new volunteers in 2012:

• Dates: September 7th and 8th
• Target group: Dublin / North East – this includes Louth, Meath, Cavan, Monaghan and North County Dublin

Apply to become a CHEP Volunteer by completing an enrolment form as above and return it either:

• By email to rscott@irishcancer.ie
• By post to Rosemary Scott (contact details below)

Following receipt of your completed enrolment form you will be contacted to arrange an interview.

For more information contact:

Rosemary Scott
CHEP Co-ordinator,
Irish Cancer Society
43-45 Northumberland Road,
Dublin 4
Phone:    01 2310579        
Email:    rscott@irishcancer.ie