Handyman at the Ark in Haarlem

Are you handy and do you have experience with tools, wallpaper, paint, electricity or appliances?

Are you flexible and do you have time to do odd jobs every week or every now and then?

Do you have a warm heart for our small-scale residential home for people with intellectual disabilities ?

For Pelletier, the residence of De Ark in Bloemendaal, we are looking for an enthusiastic

handyman (volunteer)

Eight or nine people with and without intellectual disabilities live in our house. They are roommates and share life together. It concerns five people with a care demand (mental disability) and four housing supervisors. Once every two weekends another guest is added.

The housing supervisors keep the house clean and tidy, but do not get around to minor and major maintenance in the house.

The house is big and old. There is regularly something to do for someone who is handy and has time for it. Small jobs, such as hanging or replacing a lamp. Regular chores such as emptying the wood stoves. And larger jobs, such as refurbishing or renovating the bathroom or installing a new sink.

Someone who comes weekly or fortnightly, who hears and sees what is needed, who can independently pick up and complete a (small) job is very welcome. In addition to independence and a sense of responsibility, (some) flexibility is desirable, because one week there may be little or nothing to do, and the next week more and your job still needs to be done.

Our house is open 24/7, on Monday to Thursday between 09:30 and 15:30 our housemates go to work or daytime activities. You discuss with the team leader or a housing counselor what there is to do, what is needed for this, who does what and when you will come. Of course you get coffee, tea and if you want lunch. But perhaps even more important: the gratitude of our housemates, their families and our housing supervisors.

As compensation for your work, we offer you fresh organic vegetables from our own garden during the harvest season.

Who are we?

The Ark community Haarlem consists of:

Arkhuis Pelletier .

· Workshop De Ark, where six to seven people come every day for meaningful daytime activities.

· Tuinderij De Ark, where the workshop people work with in the morning. De Tuinderij grows vegetables for approximately 80 harvest participants, people from the region who come to harvest themselves.

· And a large community of people (friends) who support the whole. Many of these people also volunteer in the home, the market garden and/or the workshop.

Forming community and spirituality are important to us. This takes shape in our weekly closure (celebration and meal) on Friday afternoon, at all kinds of other festive or important moments and in the way in which we interact with each other and with others.

The Ark Community Haarlem is part of the international federation of Ark Communities ( L'Arche ). We live and work on the Dennenheuvel estate in Bloemendaal. In a few years we will move to a new building, which will be built there.