This article is from page 24 of the 2008-07-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 24 JPG
SWS l Smear yibicr IHCOeM ONO MDM OM ADNTCaNKO establish a drop-in centre in Ennis for homeless people and people with social difficulties are holding a fund- raising dance on July 31 in the West County.
The Homeless Educational Learn- ing Programme (HELP) volunteers – who have been working with peo- ple in the town since January – have decided the new centre will be called the Sara Finn drop-in centre, in re-
membrance of Sara who died tragi- Creuse neh
“We want the centre to be a place where people can come and talk or get advice about their entitlements, or just have somewhere to go,’ said Josephine O’Brien.
Josephine now has 11 helpers work- ing with her and is adamant that the drop-in centre will be different to anything that has gone before.
“Tt will be somewhere that people can talk and be listened to, especial- ly young people and people who are
having mental health difficulties.”
The aim of HELP is to provide as- sistance to homeless people strug- gling to find accommodation.
Information on housing and resi- dents rights along with guidance on issues associated with renting prop- erty will also be available.
HELP was set up by local women Josephine O’Brien and Ann Quinn after hearing about the difficulties faced by the homeless.
The spark for HELP was provided by a Christmas Day dinner organised
for the homeless at Fahy Hall.
Josephine explained that after talk- ing to people on Christmas day she recognised the extent of the difficul- ties faced by homeless people.
“A lot of them were living in B&Bs and were finding it very hard to find permanent accommodation. In many cases, particularly where renting was concerned, they were having difficul- ty dealing with landlords. Phonecalls weren’t being returned”.
She continued “What we are aim- ing to do with HELP is to provide
some sort of guidance, show them what their rights are, what kind of forms have to be filled out, that sort Oma av eercaae
The group has had a Playstation do- nated and are hoping that someone will donate a TV.
“We’re also hoping people will give us spot prizes for the dance and of course, donations are always wel- come,’ said Josephine.
Tickets for the dance can be had from the West County Hotel or from Josephine at 065 6891596.