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The Dublin Simon Community Annual Review 2010 was launched last Tuesday in the Mansion House and attracted a nice crowd of both people working in the sector and the media who were interested in hearing about Simon’s experience of homelessness over the last 18 months. Speaking on the day were Provost of Trinity College, Dr. John Hegarty; former Dublin Simon service user Glenn Gannon: CEO Sam McGuinness; and former volunteer and now staff member Louise Duffy. All spoke extremely well with Glenn recalling some of the harder times he experienced on the streets while Louise read a letter written by a lady she worked with during her time in detox. Everyone there was equally impressed and subdued at the work Dublin Simon carries out day by day. Thank you to everyone who took part on the day. Extensive coverage was received and the review can be viewed here

Yes everybody, it’s that time of year again!

If you haven’t already heard that the Fun Run will this year be taking place on October 9th, you can get all the details here It’s bound to be a fantastic day as always and if you can’t be convinced to run in it, the fundraising team are always looking for help on the day so if you or anyone in your service wants to get involved in the day please contact Sharon via email or call fundraising on 6715551. Otherwise, pass the word to all and sundry…

A big welcome from Dublin Simon Community to:

Sean Ginty – Service Operational Worker

Training for September includes:

Group 3-DCU Key Working Module 2 (Socio Economic Contexts), Monday 06.09.10: 2 day
DIT Volunteer Train the Trainer, Wednesday 08.09.10: 2 days
Group 1-DCU Key Working Module 3 (Health illness and addiction),Monday 13.09.10: 2 day
Organisational Induction, Wednesday 15.09.10: 1 day
DIT Volunteer Train the Trainer, Wednesday 15.09.10: 2 days
Emergency First Aid, Thursday 16.09.10: 1 day
Occupational First Aid, Tuesday 28.09.10: 3 days

I have worked with the Dublin Simon Community for little over a year now. I first started as a member of the relief team and a short while later accepted the position of full time Service Operational Worker in Island House emergency accommodation. The emergency accommodation was very new to me as I had only worked in long term services before that, so I had to get up to speed quickly with the new service and its procedures. As the months went on I grew more confident in my role and started to follow in my team mates foot steps as if it was the norm!

A year has passed now and we have seen many residents come and go. Some have moved on to long term housing and others sadly are no longer with us. The shelter is due to close at the end of the year so we are busy bees trying to support residents with housing registrations and applications. This however is going to be so much easier now we have a new day service and new day staff members on our team.  I’m off on holidays shortly to get married in Portugal and when I return the day service will be in full swing and running smoothly. Good luck to everyone in the coming months with the planned re-structure of homeless services. Hoping everything goes to plan!
Support each other and keep safe.

With increased focus on ‘value for money’ and pressure on organisational budgets across the sector we are having to look at new and innovative ways to develop services. Inter agency collaboration and pooling resources is the most cost effective way to maximise on new opportunities and plug holes in existing services .

It was with this in mind that Dublin Simon in conjunction with ‘SafetyNet’, the ‘Order of Malta’ and ‘Chrysalis’ launched a mobile primary healthcare unit in April of this year. Traditionally our client group do not have access to or do not avail of mainstream primary healthcare. This is thought to be down to a number of factors, i.e. no medical cards, blockages in GP waiting lists, poor expectations of an understanding of their complex set of needs etc. Typically this under usage of early intervention services leads to an over reliance on acute facilities such as emergency departments, out patients etc.
The key objective of the mobile unit is to provide accessible primary healthcare and supporting services to the client within their own environment and thereby act as an appropriate gateway to mainstream services.

The unit which operates two evenings a week is based on an ambulance which is a scaled down version of a doctor’s surgery and stationed in areas where there is a known high density of rough sleepers. The range of services offered include: health assessments, wound care/ management, blood Bourne virus screening, cervical smears and referral on to specialised services (i.e. hepatitis clinic, drug & alcohol treatment) and provision of harm reduction equipment such as sterile drug paraphernalia, condoms etc. To date 92 individuals have availed of the service.

For further information please contact the Rough Sleeper Team on 01 872 0185.

Meetings with Wicklow County Council and Bray Town Council:

During the holiday month of August we managed to meet with Wicklow County Council to review and plan for the ongoing assessment of the homeless population in the County. A homeless count took place in Bray towards the end of July and the information will be published in September. This information as well as that collated by Ann Jordan, our Support Worker in Wicklow, will be the basis of our preliminary Report regarding the nature and extent of homelessness in County Wicklow.

The purpose of the report will be to understand:

o The numbers of rough sleeping and/or using emergency accommodation.
o The addiction issues and supports required for homeless individuals to source and maintain a home of their own.

Our report will be issued to Wicklow County Council and local Services towards the end of September.

Kildare County:

We have participated in a number of St Vincent De Paul Conferences and met with management there during the last number of weeks. This included a visit to the St. Vincent de Paul emergency accommodation in the town of Newbridge.  There is concern with local services that as the winter approaches there will be insufficient emergency accommodation to cater for active drinkers and a possible noticeable rough sleeping population in the towns of Naas, Kildare and Newbridge.

Our discussions with St. Vincent De Paul are focused on the arranging of services to cater for the rough sleeping population. This might include a local ‘Soup Run’ and sourcing  temporary accommodation for active drinkers. We continue to work with St. Vincent De Paul and local services on these initiatives in the coming months.

On Thursday 13th May, the Thursday Night Social Club group accepted an invitation from local Dublin South East Fianna Fail TD Chris Andrews to visit Dáil Éireann for a tour of Leinster House. After getting over the initial fear of all things political, both service users and volunteers alike enjoyed a very extensive and informative tour of the Dáil Buildings and a visit to the Seanad Chamber. For almost everyone, it was the first time they had been in Leinster House. Chris gave some background history to the buildings, an outline of how the procedures in the Dáil and Seanad Chambers worked and some idea of the type of work he carries out as a TD for his area, which includes most of the city centre and the D2, D4, and D6 areas. Questions on TD’s expenses were deftly avoided!

The Thursday Night Social Group would like to thank Chris, his secretary Lynda McLoughlin and the Dáil staff for organising the tour and making the whole group feel very welcome.

The residents of Hazelwood House recently enjoyed a trip to Croke Park…

They say ‘half the journey is getting there’ and that was certainly true for us; after three varying sets of directions, we finally arrived at the museum entrance. The group was brought on a tour of the stadium and was supplied with a host of interesting facts about ‘Croker’ by our enthusiastic guide. We were brought into (an empty) changing room to get a feel of what it’s like for a team before a game. The tour was momentarily interrupted by a hastened exchange via walkie-talkie; our guide breathed a sigh of relief and informed us that her home county had just won. We were ushered into the pre-game warm up room and had a chance to experience the thrill of walking out of the tunnel onto the pitch with sound effects of a stadium full of fans. We ascended higher up into the stadium and were greeted by a stunning view of the city. Though there is quite a bit of walking in the tour we found it to be accessible for all as there are ramps and lifts. Moreover a passion for GAA is not a necessity and the tour was interesting for everyone in the group. We ended the trip with a quick look around the museum and a refreshing mineral in the sunshine.
Next time orienteering…

One of our residents in NCR, Paul Ronan, will be running the Dublin City Marathon this October!

Paul needs to raise approximately €500 to cover the cost of his registration and running gear. Staff and volunteers can make a contribution online on mycharity.ie http://www.mycharity.ie/event/paul_rowans_event/ or if some services would like to make a cash collection amongst themselves the money can be lodged into the account. Any extra money raised will go back into the Dublin Simon services.

We want to help Paul achieve his aim of running the marathon and all donations for this worthy cause are greatly appreciated.

The implementation of Quality Standards in Alcohol and Drugs Services pilot is ongoing in Ushers Island. Through seminars and working groups we are working closely with our colleagues in the voluntary drug sector to review and develop all Policies and Procedures relating to the delivery of drug and alcohol services. We have attended two seminars on development of service user inclusion and measuring outcomes.

We are now in the sixth month of the pilot. All Governance and HR policies have been reviewed by the steering group that has been established in Treatment services and so far all our policies are QUADS compliant. In total we have reviewed 32 policies. The next phase of the pilot will be the review of service specific policies such as assessments, care planning and service user participation. This phase is hoped to be completed in early 2011 and we will then be audited by colleagues in the pilot to check on progress.

This summer’s  kayaking excursion for Rehab and Aftercare residents was kindly organised by Ian Burke, Monday night Social club volunteer, and not the full-time volunteers as stated in last month’s ezine. Apologies to Ian and a big thank you to him for organising the excursion which was enjoyed by all!

In 2005 I was a full-time volunteer in Dublin Simon’s Emergency Shelter on Harcourt St. Right from the start I found the role very demanding and challenging. As a full-time volunteer my role involved mixing with the service users in the living areas, thus exposing myself directly to individuals under the influence of alcohol and drugs. It was both intimidating and awkward entering into the hostel environment, as I was not only the new kid in town but I was also a volunteer. My reasons for being there were not as transparent as the service users, resulting in my presence being greeted with warranted suspicion. The first few weeks were the toughest as the process of getting to know the service users and vice versa took its course. It was hard going but I hung on in there and I’m so thankful that I did. Obviously trust was gained from both sides during a gradual process but it seemed the mist of suspicion that followed me lifted in an instant and from that moment on my relations with the service users grew.  The six months volunteering in the Emergency Shelter made a huge impact on me and I left knowing that I would return to the Simon one day.

So here I am, five years on and back for more! This time I’ve been assigned to the Housing Support Service (HSS) which aims to prevent people from losing their homes. My role as a full-time volunteer with the HSS presents various situations comprising of both complex and straight forward issues. This lends a lot of potential for acquiring new knowledge and skills surrounding the area of tenancy sustainment where knowledge regarding social benefits and entitlements coupled with an awareness of the other services offered by state and charitable agencies can only work to promote an individual’s case. Saying this, unfortunately, only serves to remind me of how much I need to learn in this area, and so I’m left to anticipate an educational, albeit exciting, experience with the Dublin Simon Community.

Most of you are aware by now that I have finally signed the contract with Dublin City Council on behalf of the four local authorities (DCC, South Dublin, DLCC and Fingal) to provide the Regional Visiting Support Housing Service (SLI). We were awarded this contract last November and it is effective from 1st September for a 3 year term. Thankfully we can now start focusing on the delivering of services rather than the waiting game.

The big issue now is still the availability of “move on” accommodation of “Housing First”. On Tuesday at the launch of our Annual Review for 2009, themed ‘Believe in People’ we focused on this need and called on the government to live up to its commitment to end long term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by the end of 2010. I stated that the recent steady increase in homeless presentations had brought an end to the downward trend in the problem in recent years and that we were having only limited success in moving people on to longer term housing. I emphasised the critical need for government to deliver the 1,200 properties it had promised by the end of this year – little more than 200 of which have been allocated to date. All of this is at a time when housing is lying idle all over the country and still over 2,000 people are homeless, some stuck in emergency style accommodation. As I said on Tuesday; “people have no home and nowhere to go and are moving in and out of emergency shelters, many of which are of dubious standard”.

Thanks to very supportive media for our Annual Review 2009 launch. We had tremendous support from RTE news/Nuacht,the Irish Times, Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent who gave the issues mentioned editorial coverage. I even had the opportunity to be invited to participate on the Matt Cooper programme. All I can say is that we have given it our best shot. On everybody’s behalf, a big thank you to Lorna, Ceri and the team, and to everyone who participated in and orchestrated this year’s extraordinary event. The Annual Review 2009 is available online at www.dubsimon.ie

Later this month another critical exercise will take place during the week of 20-25th September, when Dublin Simon will be meeting the assessment panel made up of our statutory funders. They will be pouring over and scrutinising the financial appraisals of all our present and intended services in the reconfiguration for cost effectiveness and value for money. In 2009, our statutory funding was 57% of the €10.2m we needed to provide services. Even after the reduction of 16% in 2009 of non service costs, with the dwindling state funding due to our country’s economic crisis we will need to continue to do more.  I see no end in sight to the cost reduction programmes, pay freezes and constant re-prioritisation and reallocation of resources in the best interests of the people we serve. As I said in my ‘Review of Challenges’ in the Annual Review 2009, “We will continue to strive for the wisdom, skills and expertise to stretch every penny available, while doing the right thing and acting in the best interests of all Dublin Simon Community stakeholders.”

The tough must keep going

Sam

Last Tuesday (10.08.10) the Homeless Agency, on behalf of the Dublin Joint Homelessness Consultative Forum (previously the Board of the Homeless Agency), published and distributed the Reconfiguration Plan for homeless services. This mapping document, called Pathway to Home, sets out future requirements for statutory and NGO services across the greater Dublin area. A copy can be downloaded from the Homeless Agency website or requested from inforequest@dubsimon.ie or from your line manager.

As you are already aware, as a representative of the Homeless Network, I am a member of the Homeless Forum and have been involved in the Implementation Advisory Group for formulating this plan for the Network, Statutory Bodies and Government approval to support the Partnership Vision that ‘by 2010 long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough will be eliminated in Dublin…’

In our press release this week we said that “Statutory and voluntary organisations have worked tirelessly to bring about these overdue changes and the reality of the situation is that without adequate housing coming on stream, we are faced with a failed government initiative. An additional 1200 units of accommodation were promised by the end of 2010.  To date a limited amount has become available. We commend the plan which is innovative and acknowledge the efforts of all concerned. Failure cannot be considered at this point”.

We also stated that “Minister Finneran has introduced positive schemes but without housing availability these schemes are threatened with failure. There are currently no alternative plans in place; people need to move out of homelessness but there is no place to go. We all know there are empty houses in the city and county. It’s like a housing famine in a land of plenty; a situation exists where those in need are not able to access what they require for survival”.
The consequence of not halting this slippage with immediate corrective action will further affect service user’s health and lives.

The Pathway to Home clearly sets out the significant role Dublin Simon Community will continue to have across the Greater Dublin area delivering services to people who are homeless and need to rebuild their lives. We will be leading the Regional Contact and Outreach Team. The plan also clearly states we will have a replacement for Harcourt Street at last and that Ushers Island will be the Regional Centre for Detox and Stabilisation. We will continue to have an increased role in long-term residential accommodation; additionally Sean Mac, NCR (which is also due to be moved to a new building), Dorset St. and Canal Road will move to 24 hour cover.
Dublin Simon will be involved in providing the Regional Prevention Service for South Dublin, Fingal, and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown (DLRD) as well as visiting support under the SLI initiative for the whole region – the contract for which will be signed very shortly.

In the meantime I would encourage you to read the document, satisfy your questions and enjoy the remainder of the summer.

Talk soon,
SAM