Services

Accommodation Service

This service provides assistance, support and practical advice for young people seeking accommodation at any given time. It is also an important referral service for people both under and over eighteen years of age, who are homeless and in need of supervised and safe emergency accommodation. We also provide after-care and support to our clients who find accommodation, and we encourage them to continue to link in with our service afterwards, whether to participate in programmes, or continue with education, training or find work. Following evaluation of this service during 2008 by the staff team, care was taken to ensure that this service was better structured and that staff accompaniment would be available for accommodation viewings if required.

Moving on Pack

The moving on pack previously consisted of vouchers toward the cost of moving into accommodation and to ensure all service users would have sheets, domestic appliances, toiletries etc. However, following evaluation of the moving on pack by staff the pack now consists of these vouchers together with a No. 4 cookbook, a healthy lifestyles booklet, a You-Are-Not-Alone booklet with phone numbers and addresses for those in distress, a shopping budget guide, a meal roster and a cleaning roster to help young people manage to maintain accommodation.

Advocacy and Accompaniment

Staff liaise with relevant persons and advocate on behalf of young people with relevant agencies and, following evaluation of this service throughout 2008, further efforts have been made to increase availability of staff for accompaniment in this regard.

Job skills and interview preparation.

Key workers work with service users who wish to look for employment. This might involve preparing/updating their CV, applying for jobs, interview skills/role play in preparing for interviews. Work is also done on securing work experience young people who would benefit from have no prior experience of a working enviroment.

Support with Social Welfare entitlements  

Staff at No. 4 offer support and information on entitlements including benefits, claims, appeals, medical card, rent allowance, lone parent allowance, back to work/education allowance, accommodation deposits, child benefit and so on. Staff also liaise with relevent persons and agencies. Following evaluation of this service in 2008 further efforts have been made to increase availability of staff for accompaniment in this regard.

Information and support with ongoing/ return to education/ further training

This programme enables the young person to identify their skills and potential and encourage them to return to education or employment. Following evaluation of this service by staff during 2008, a big effort was made to ensure that all relevant information on education, training and employment was sourced and made available, service-users were accompanied as required to education forums and meetings and staff liaised as necessary with educational facilities on behalf of service-users. With the installation of the new computer suite, basic computer training was offered to all service-users where they were taught to set up email accounts, send emails, research information and apply for jobs online. There have been many successes amongst our service-users this year. Several have taken up college courses, some have found employment and some remain in school. Access to medical supports

Inter Agency referral service

It is important that if an individual’s needs cannot be entirely met by engaging with our service that they are referred to organisations/agencies that can meet their particular needs. It is the policy of the No. 4 Drop-in Centre to work closely with such organizations in Galway City which would include the following: Emergency Accommodation Centres, Residential Childcare Centres, Youth groups, Probation services, CWOs, Social Welfare, Threshold, City Hall, MABS (this list is not exhaustive). Over the course of the past two years No. 4 has made great efforts to strengthen our links with other agencies and organizations, distributing leaflets to appropriate services to ensure that young people who could benefit from our service are aware of it, inviting speakers in from various agencies and organizations, attending trainings and giving presentations on our service and the important changes that have taken place to maintain the highest standards of service. As a result, agencies and organizations are increasingly aware of the efficiency and high standard of our service, feedback is excellent, many of our clients are presenting as referrals from other agencies and organizations and our referral service to other organizations and agencies is based on strong links.

Counselling service

T his service enables young people to take control of their lives in a positive and empowering way. Through identifying and clarifying key issues in their lives, the young person can become more focused and begin to make healthy choices and decisions around their life. It promotes self-awareness, growth and may help the person to express their experiences, feelings and emotions. The counselling sessions take place in No. 4 which ensures our service users are comfortable in their surroundings. With more counsellors agreeing to work with the young people in No. 4 we have been very fortunate to be able to provide counselling as required even with the increased number of young people seeking to avail of this service throughout 2008.

Nutrition and budgeting

 For young people who are sleeping rough or on a friend's floor, healthy eating is way down on their list of concerns. Once accommodation has been secured, staff at No 4 work with youths to enable them to learn how to do household budgets to ensure that the basics such as rent, heat and electricity are paid. A "healthy lifestyle" booklet which examines issues such as stress, exercise, healthy eating along with a cookery book "The picture of Health"

Support with court appearences

 For young people who have upcoming court apperaances No 4 make every effort to provide a staff member to accompany them in a supportive role.

Numeracy and Literacy classes

 Through the availability of this service, young people can gain access to "one to one" educational support. Through this programme, we enable young people to improve their numeracy and literacy skills and receive assistance, support and guidance, should they decide to return to school, further education or further training.The teacher works with the young person at a suitable pace, whilst paying attention to identifying any learning disabilities such as dyslexia or hearing/visual impairments. This service also provides a vital link with continued education for young people living in care. Over the last two years the service has worked with a high precantage of Asylum seekers and refugees. Our new computer suite and resource library has facilitated further learning in a way which was not possible previously and a high number of young people who were not attending formalised classes have improved their literacy and computer skills. The tutor and staff in No4 liaise closely with the VEC Adult Literacy Service to ensure continuity of learning.

Sleeping rough packs

Sleeping rough packs are provided to those service users that are not facilitated in emergency accommodation to minimise the harm that is caused both physically and mentally by sleeping rough on the streets. They comprise of a tent, sleeping bag, roll mat and basic toiletries and first aid items. Funding secured from the Community Foundation of Ireland in 2008 allowed us to stock up on these packs and ensure good quality tents and sleeping bags that would provide the best warmth and protection from the elements. The sleeping rough pack, especially the sleeping bag, roll mat and tent have made a big difference to the wellbeing of those of our service-users who have ended up sleeping rough, especially given the bitter cold winters we experience in this country.

 Computer and internet services

Computers are available for service-users to compile their CV’s or complete college/school assignments. Free internet is also available to our clients and this has proved vital in research and looking for accommodation, employment and courses. Free printing and photocopying is also available to our service-users. This service has really grown throughout 2008 with the majority of service-users having accessed the service at one stage or another and many using it on a regular basis to look for employment, training and accommodation as well as more general everyday purposes.