I first began working in the not for profit sector in 2013; my daughter Freya was on the way and it was time to settle down and commit to a career I could find some meaning in. The decision to work in homeless services was made a few years earlier on a long walk through Europe, 4,500km, from my home town of Julianstown, Ireland to Istanbul, Turkey! I met a lot of people who were homeless on the way and was often mistaken for a homeless person myself. The journey changed the way I viewed the world in general and changed my perception of homelessness as a social issue in particular.
Working in homeless services is rewarding and frustrating. Rewarding because of the little wins - the few times you are part of a positive outcome for a person exiting homelessness to lead a normal and fulfilled life. Frustrating because of the structural issues that feed into and cause homelessness - in particular the ‘laissez faire’ approach to housing that Ireland has adopted since the 1980’s - and, following this, the sense that, no matter what you do, you are only kicking the can down the road.
I began my career in the charity sector as a ‘resettlement worker’ with a small independent homeless charity in Co. Louth called Drogheda Homeless Aid. I quickly became frustrated as it was effectively impossible to resettle someone from homelessness into mainstream housing, because of the housing shortage and stigma associated with being homeless. A gnawing hopelessness that goes far beyond the physical lack of a house has evolved because of this. I faced a choice of becoming cynical or doing something constructive. In 2014 I co-founded My Streets Ireland as a vehicle for people affected by homelessness to engage in an accessible and sensitively designed education and employment model.
My Streets is a social enterprise which runs three month training courses that focus on creative writing, research, confidence and performance and tour guiding designed to empower people affected by homelessness to become professional tour guides. Training is free and tour guides are paid €40 per tour they provide. A monetary payment puts value on a person’s time.
My Streets begins by telling people that they have potential and then teaches them to communicate that to everyone else. And it works - to date 55 people have engaged with the programme and provided professional walking tours of Drogheda and Dublin to over 12,000 tourists. Over 50% of trainees have progressed on to further employment, education or a better housing outcome within six months of completing the programme.
My Streets runs on a voluntary basis so I work a separate day job to earn a crust. In July 2019 I was appointed as CEO of Robert Emmet CDP, a fantastic community development project in South West Inner City Dublin. As well as delivering two core programmes, an afterschool project and an employability programme for migrant women, Robert Emmet CDP acts as a community resource. People deserve more than charity. They deserve an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. “There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard”. If everyone realised the power of their own voice, used that voice effectively, the social inequality that exists in Ireland today would not be possible.
For more information about My Streets Ireland or Robert Emmet CDP please check out: