The 2nd of January 2025 saw the service open back up after being closed for just under a week, since Friday 27th December 2024. A few challenges throughout the month such as a leak and no heating during an icy week didn’t prohibit any of our services running as usual. Plans were put in place, things were changed around and everything ran as it should have.
The end of January saw the beginning of a new Monday group for our Men’s Programme. With the Men’s Friday group averaging at about 8/10 clients consistently per week it only felt right to open the service on another day to offer more support to those who already attend the Friday group, but also those who, for whatever reason, cannot attend on Fridays. Our Friday group runs from 2:30-4:30pm and the Monday group will run from 3:30-5:30pm. Should you be in interested in this programme please don’t hesitate to contact us.
The first Monday group took place on Monday 27th January with 8 in attendance. With the structure of the Friday group being food from 2:30-3:15pm and other planned activities from 3:15-4:30pm we would hope that the Monday group will run on a similar structure.
For our Slanu group the month of January bought the beginning of an 8-week course of Stress Management Workshops with an outside Facilitator as this was something which was identified as a need amongst the group. The group continues to work through a mosaic art project of the feelings wheel. 6 out of 9 of the places on this programme are currently engaged; new clients are always welcome.
Our Women’s Crack Cocaine programme started their 12-week Contingency Management Programme on Friday 10th January 2025. The group continues to offer a Friday programme and drop-in on a Monday from 9:30-4:30pm (service closed from 1-2pm in between), and Tuesday drop-in from 2-4:30pm. There is a huge push needed to keep these drop-ins open as numbers have gradually dropped off.
Our 6th Class transitional group started during the last week in January for our Youth Programme and we are accepting school referrals for our next cycle that will run from April until July.
After a long full January, February flew by, while also being busy with lots of positive aspects. Our Slanu programme visited the Civic Theatre to see a showing of ‘The 3:30 at Cheltenham’. This was a very impactful piece and all our clients who went to see it were moved by it. Another positive that came out of this was some of our clients visiting the Civic Theatre for the first time despite living in the area their whole life. The Crack Cocaine video ‘The Mothers Struggling with Crack Cocaine: Hope in a Crack Epidemic’ was released onto different social media platforms and has received very positive feedback. The documentary gave an insight into some women’s experiences of using crack cocaine and the stigma they are subject to in their own communities. The women that engaged with our programme this month have received support regarding housing, mental health, Tusla, medical, crisis intervention and anything else that presented during the month of February. One of the Friday groups during the month of February saw 10 women in the group at once which is more than has been present at once for a long period; this was very successful. The Monday Men’s drop-in ran consecutively every Monday in February, numbers varied from week to week, but we still saw men come through the doors which is a massive positive. This month the girl’s group from our Youth Programme began the Active Youth Challenge. This challenge is an opportunity for the girls to try 12 hours of different sporting activities over 12 weeks; so far the girls have engaged in pool, baton twirling and slack lining, with plans to do badminton during the first week in March. There is a huge push for the 15-17 year old drop in on a Saturday from 12-1:30pm. If you know of someone who would benefit from availing this service please contact Michelle on 014626033.
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