Category: Press Releases

Dear Friends

Its time again to wish you a Happy New Year. In thanking you for your support in so many ways, I would like to bring you up to date on our past years activities.

• We continue to meet 30 plus men and women each morning, the majority sleeping out. Recently five men met first in the seventies called homeless again. 300 350 outfits of clothing are given out free monthly as part of a holistic health service all donated apart from underwear/socks, which we purchase. Going on current second hand shop prices this would amount to over £200,000 per annum.
• Washing facilities are available. We have a chiropody session once a month and have the services of an Optician, Dentist and local GPs available to us. Psychiatric Outreach Worker and Community Welfare Officers call weekly. Many people known to us died during the year, some in appalling circumstances.
• We have been able to improve facilities for people using our services – we now have a little more space and central heating.
• Our work would not be possible without the goodwill of many in Statutory and Voluntary Agencies, the business community, Rotary Groups, Church Groups and ordinary members of the public countrywide. This year staff in the Corporate Section in E.S.B. have been added to the many who keep us supplied with clothes.
• Our local St. Patricks Cathedral and Liberties Festival Group have ensured through their ongoing support that we are part of the local community.
• I continue to chair Sentence Review Group.
• The Homeless Initiative on which we were represented has been replaced by the Homeless Services Agency.
• In September the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, John ODonoghue T.D. launched the TRUST Transition Year Project, a national education initiative aimed at getting students to think about exclusion and how those whom society regards as outsiders can be made to feel part of the community.

This initiative was created because of the huge response from students and teachers to the documentary A FRAGILE CITY which was broadcast on RTE 1 television in Sept. 1999 about Trusts work and the people it works with which was made by the award winning Esperanza Productions.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and The Irish Times, with the support of the Rotary Club, Dublin, the TRUST Transition Year Project features a special web site (www.trust-ireland.ie), an essay competition and the distribution of the video A FRAGILE CITY with a specially compiled education pack to all second level schools for use in the Transition Year Programme.

The poet Micheal OSiadhail, a long time friend of TRUST, is Chairman of the Board of Adjudicators for the essay competition, which is open to entries in Irish and English. Latest date for receipt of entries is end-February 2001.

See our website www.trust-ireland.ie for more information.

• We have made submissions to relevant Government Agencies where appropriate.
• We have continued our Education Role meeting specialist groups.
• However the hands on work is the most important aspect of TRUSTS work.
• There has been more publicity than ever before about homelessness, more funding has been made available for housing and more people have been employed to work in the field. However, we continue to see homelessness as a very complex problem that cannot be solved by housing alone. To suggest this can be isolating but our daily work does not convince us otherwise.
• We acknowledge the contribution made by those in the media and encourage them to look behind statistics at the humanity of people who find themselves homeless.
• At a time when there are diverse views on homelessness and continuity of contact is upset by a shifting workforce our biggest challenge is to retain the personal touch by delivering our service through familiar faces. To do this well we believe we must resist the temptation to expand.
• We are satisfied that TRUST helps to make life easier for some of the most isolated people in our city and beyond. Everyone in TRUST would like to thank you for making our work possible.

Kind regards

Alice Leahy – Director

The Outsider

Students in Every Town & Village in Ireland Urged to Participate

Alice Leahy, Director & Co-Founder of TRUST has announced that the National Essay Competition to promote more awareness of the outsiders in our society organised as part of the TRUST National Project for Transition Year Students has been put back to February 28th next to give students and teachers more time to participate given recent developments in the second level sector.

Urging Transition Year students from every town and village in Ireland to take part Alice Leahy said:

“At a time when Irelands has never been richer it is disappointing that we seem to be less generous and more intolerant towards anyone who does not fit in. The key message we are trying to get across is that anyone of us could become an outsider and only when we acknowledge that fact can we start to build a truly inclusive society where everyone can feel welcome and accepted for what they are. We selected the theme “The Outsider” for the essay competition as a practical way of giving students in Transition Year a way of addressing that issue for themselves and hope as many as possible will participate because we hope to publish as many essays as possible when the competition is over.”

A special Education Pack was created as part of the TRUST Transition Year Project and sent to all Transition Years in October including a video copy of the acclaimed documentary A FRAGILE CITY, with copies of a specially designed poster; a manual entitled “Suggestions for Transition Year Students & Teachers” as well as the booklet “TRUST” A web site was also launched as part of this initiative www.trust-ireland.ie – and students are also invited to enter the essay competition on-line or by post!

A number of valuable prizes are also on offer for the winners including a lap top computer and £100 in book and music tokens for the overall winner with four runner up prizes of a mini disc player and £100 in music and book tokens.

Theme of National Education Initiative

Launched by TRUST To Help Combat All Forms of Exclusion

The Minister for Justice, Equality & Law Reform, John O’Donoghue TD today launched the TRUST Transition Year Project, a national education initiative aimed at getting students to think about exclusion and how those whom society regards as outsiders can be made to feel part of the community. Pat Kenny of RTE acted as MC for the event which was held in Dublin Castle.

Everyone is important! This is the message we are trying to get across and why we created this Project. We work with people everyday who are excluded, who are outsiders. This is an attempt to share our experience with young people – who will run tomorrow¹s world -at a very formative stage in their lives, when for a brief time, in Transition Year they do get some time to take stock before the exam pressure intensifies and the points race takes over.

ALICE LEAHY, Director and Co-Founder of TRUST said speaking at the launch.

This initiative was created by TRUST in response to the huge response from students and teachers to the documentary A FRAGILE CITY which was broadcast on RTE 1 television late year about Trust’s work and the people it works with which was made by the award winning Esperanza Productions.

The response we received to A Fragile City showed people we all share a certain “sameness” or vulnerability. Indeed, the phrase “there but for the grace of God go I” really does apply to all of us given that we meet people everyday in TRUST from all levels and backgrounds in society. This is why we placed the video at the centre of this project. If education means anything it must give us the ability to think – sometimes the question is more important than the answer.

Alice Leahy, Director, TRUST

Co-sponsored by the Department of the Justice, Equality & Law Reform and The Irish Times, with the support of the Rotary Club, Dublin the TRUST Transition Year Project features a special web site (www.trust-ireland.ie), an essay competition and the distribution of the video A FRAGILE CITY with a special education pack to all second level schools for use in the Transition Year Programme.

The poet Micheal O’Siadhail, a long time friend of TRUST, is Chairman of the Board of Adjudicators for the essay competition which will be open to entries in Irish and English. One of Ireland’s leading Poet’s he has special interest in those who society consigns to the margins and one of his best known poems is entitled “Outsider”. (A full list of the Board of Adjudicators is attached to this Press Release).

Education Pack being sent to schools in October

The Education Pack featuring the video A Fragile City and the special “Suggestions for Transition Year Teachers” manual will be sent to all second levels schools in October. However, the web site specially created for this project www.trust-ireland.ie, and which will continue as TRUST’s presence on the web when the project is completed went live today and will be updated throughout the project.

We are using the Internet as part of this project because despite our small size it allows us to reach all second level schools. Our aim is to get across the importance of seeing people as people without labels; to ignore stereotypes and leave our preconceptions and prejudices aside and treat everyone as important and equal. That is the fundamental principle of our approach everyday in TRUST. We meet people who are physically and even emotionally battered beyond all recognition. Some have committed serious crimes while others are extremely fragile. We try to reach people by trusting them as people, respecting them as individuals and trying to provide some space for them.

Alice Leahy, Director, TRUST

TRUST hopes that the essay competition will allow students the opportunity to give some feedback and provide some outlet for expressing how we can create a society in which “everyone is important” the headline on the specially designed poster to promote the project.

Essay competition might not be a totally accurate title! We will accept any number of words from a sentence to a few paragraphs up to a maximum of five hundred words. What we are interested in are some thought provoking ideas and comments. It is also our aim to ensure that as many entries as possible are published in some form so that they are not lost and go on to serve as practical inspiration to all of us in trying to create a better society for all.

Alice Leahy, Directory, TRUST

Entries can be made on the web site www.trust-ireland.ie, or directly by post to TRUST, Bride Road, Dublin 8.

TRUST Transition Year Project

“Advocates on behalf of those we work with”

TRUST Transition Year Project involves a big commitment by TRUST and its Director and Co-Founder Alice Leahy and was created with Esperanza Productions who also made A Fragile City. (See note attached on A Fragile City.)

The Trustees of TRUST are committed to advocacy on behalf of those they work with, recognising only an inclusive society in which everyone is important and made welcome offers any real chance of ensuring not only the roots of homelessness but other forms of social exclusion, racism and intolerance can be understood and hopefully eliminated.

We can only reach a small number of those who are effectively excluded by society in our everyday work. But through projects like this one we have a chance to put our experience to good use in getting the message across that we must create space for people who are different.

Alice Leahy , Director, TRUST

It’s that time again to wish you a Happy New Year. In thanking you for your support in so many ways, I would also like to bring you up to date on recent activities.

• We have 30 plus men and women calling each morning, the majority sleeping out, aged 18 to 85. We see new people daily – increasing numbers of vulnerable young women. 270 / 300 outfits of clothing are given out every month as part of a holistic service, most of which are donated. Washing facilities are available. We have a chiropody session once a month and have the services of an optician, dentist and local GP’s available to us. Community Psychiatric Nurse and Community Welfare Officers call weekly. Sadly a large number of people using the services of TRUST died during the year.
• We continue to work in premises provided at a nominal rent by Iveagh Trust. We work closely with voluntary and statutory agencies.
• I continue to chair the Sentence Review Group. We are represented on the Consultative Board of the Homeless Initiative.
• Re The Homeless Experience, our one day training pack launched in Spring. Training days take place monthly in Civic Offices and are jointly run by TRUST and Dublin Corporation and some in outside venues. To date, over 150 from voluntary, statutory and community groups have attended from Dublin and outside.
• The video documentary ‘A Fragile City’ produced by Esperanza Productions, Award winning Film Producers, was shown on RTE in September. Following the launch by Pat Kenny in Dublin Castle courtesy of An Taoiseach, it received widespread publicity and is now available on video – plans are in place for its’ circulation to schools.
• We acknowledge the contribution made by those in the media and encourage them to look behind statistics at the humanity of people who find themselves homeless.
• Amongst those who visited during the year were the Right Hon The Lord Mayor, Councillor Mary Freehill, who spent a morning with us, as did Chief Superintendent Catherine Clancy, Community Relations, Garda Siochana and Senior Management from Eastern Health Board and Dublin Corporation.
• At a time when there are diverse views on homelessness, and continuity of contact is upset by a shifting workforce our biggest challenge is to retain the personal touch by delivering our service through familiar faces. To do this well, we believe we must resist the temptation to expand.

We are satisfied that TRUST helps to make life easier for some of the most isolated people in our city and beyond. Everyone in TRUST would like to thank you for making our work possible.

Kind Regards,
Alice Leahy – Director