Building Trust

Alice Leahy is the Director of TRUST, a non-political, non-denominational voluntary body which provides social and health services to the homeless. She speaks to EM about the organisation and its new national initiative, Building Trust in the Community, which is co-sponsored by ESB Electric Aid.

While the Irish economy and our own personal prosperity have grown enormously in recent times, more and more of our people are being left behind. The homeless are the most acutely vulnerable of these, and TRUST was established to provide homeless people with the basics required for human health and dignity.

"TRUST has been in existence for 30 years now," according to Director Alice Leahy, "and until recently all our work has been centred here in Dublin." Leahy trained as a nurse, and set up the first intensive care unit for the homeless in Dublin's Baggot Street, which she ran for two years.

"When I started nursing, I felt there was a lot of work to be done right here in Ireland. Sometimes it's easier to talk about the problems abroad rather than the ones here at home. On TV we often see terrible images from abroad - but we can see many of the same things right here, if we look."

"Initially, I worked with the Simon Community, and in those days you lived in the same accommodation as the residents. You only received the amount of money you got in the door. There was no other support." While the Simon Community achieved a great deal in terms of providing accommodation, Leahy saw a gap in the provision of health services and decided to do something about it.

"I left Simon and went into private nursing for a time - just to raise some money because I hadn't any left - and I came back with a group of voluntary doctors helping me to bring health services to the people who needed them. We went around to all the hostels at night."

Ultimately, the group decided to set up a private charitable trust, as it is today. "We got the use of an old hut up in Lord Edward Street, and we organised medical supplies and access to chiropody and dentistry services. In addition to our volunteers, we employed the full-time services of a doctor who undertook to work with us for a number of years. You have to remember that this wasn't a very desirable job - there were no promotional prospects!"

By then we had moved here, to the basement of the Iveagh Trust, which we got for a very small rent. Sometimes people get the name confused and think we're the Iveagh Trust! We have a very good relationship with them - they're very good to us and vice versa - but we don't provide accommodation. We provide health care, which is a much broader remit than just seeing a doctor and giving out prescriptions. We work with people who can't use the ordinary services for one reason or another but who desperately need those services."

"Our facility has a shower and a bathroom. There's a day room, and a room which is the equivalent to a clothes shop with all items labelled with size and description. We distribute an average of 500 outfits of clothing a month - all donated. Callers are fed, given the opportunity to wash and get a change of clothes, and then have their health matters attended to."

TRUST is a small agency, but that's the way Leahy wants it. "It's very clear to me that when things get too big it gets unwieldy, and all our energy could go on fund-raising and administration."

"Are we doing the work that the state should be doing?" Leahy wonders. "Are we letting the state off the hook? That's the dilemma and the question that needs to be asked. Voluntary agencies should be able to be more creative rather than doing the work that somebody else should be doing. But that's an issue for down the road."

Right now, however, Building Trust in the Community is a perfect example of just the kind of creativity that Leahy believes voluntary agencies should be free to pursue.

Building Trust in the Community is an initiative by TRUST in association with The Irish Times and sponsored by ESB Electric Aid, which seeks to build on the considerable work already going on in many communities across Ireland. Leahy describes it as an opportunity "to change attitudes towards those who are homeless, and to make those who are excluded and outsiders in Irish society feel wanted." Leahy is especially grateful for the support of the ESB, in which she finds "great community spirit - from the bottom and all the way to the top."

TRUST is extending an invitation to any group to apply for a free DVD, called Building Trust in the Community, as a starting point of what is hoped will grow, from the ground up, into a national debate on the way we treat the homeless. Each group is then asked to host an informal showing and a discussion about the issues raised before passing it on to another group.

Any group can apply, including community groups, women's groups, branches of trade unions, Rotary, Chambers of Commerce, adult education groups, religious communities, etc. The secretary or representative of a group just needs to email info@trust-ireland.ie or write to TRUST, Bride Road, Dublin 8.

"We want to create an awareness chain reaction and ensure that the one thousand DVDs we have produced will be seen and used by at least 100,000 people. This is not an unrealistic ambition but a very real opportunity to make a big difference for those who feel no one cares," Alice Leahy says. EM