Crosscare Clinic opens in Blanchardstown
by Martin Ryan

A Crosscare information clinic has opened at Main Street, Blanchardstown, at the location which previously was home to the oratory for the Capuchin order. Crosscare is an organisation which works to address the lack of information, poverty and exclusion among many groups in society.

Fourteen programmes are currently operated by the organisation and two of them are specifically addressed by the new office in Blanchardstown. The projects dealt with at this location are Migrant and Housing/Wefare issues. Providing this service can mean anything from form-filling, information on residency status to discussing different homeless services and housing options.

Richard King who deals with migrant concerns explained to Community Voice that this is a broader remit than one might imagine. “We would offer advice and help to people coming into and leaving Ireland. Many times people don’t know what their entitlements are in a new place and we can help them in that respect. The work can be as different as organising visas for people who want to come here to see their families to helping people who have returned to Ireland having emigrated and are getting settled back in here.”

The head office of the organisation is in Cathedral Street in the city centre, but as Anne Hetherington - who also works at the Blanchardstown location – explained, there are many locations around the city where Crosscare has a presence. “There are food banks at Portland Row and Holles Row in the city centre and night shelters for the homeless in Dun Laoghaire, Charlemont Street, Eccles Street, Ranelagh Road and Longford Lane around the city so this is just the latest location.”

The office in Blanchardstown which opened in early January, will provide a service initially just from 2.30 to 4.30pm on Mondays. It is hoped to extend the service significantly and offer an effective full service there in the foreseeable future.

Part of this process will be an assessment of the needs specific to the locality especially in the context of services already being provided. The Crosscare workers are very conscious of the good work being done by Youthreach, for example, and see little point in duplicating services already being provided effectively locally.

The organisation is funded by a combination of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Department of Foreign Affairs, collections arranged by the group itself and - in the case of facilities for the homeless – the Health Service Executive.

Crosscare itself was founded in 1941 at a time of appalling poverty in Dublin. The Catholic Social Services Conference as it was then called, set up its famed food centres providing nourishing meals for those who were hungry, while the clothing department provided those in need with new clothes.

The growth in Crosscare’s services emerged as the needs and concept of poverty changed over years. However, according to its website “the central remit of this social care agency has always been to address and redress poverty, marginalisation and social exclusion in Dublin.”

Speaking to the Crosscare workers in Blanchardstown gives the strong impression that the enthusiasm and knowledge is there to provide a service that will be of real benefit to those in the community in need of support for various reasons. Given the increasingly diverse population of the community in Dublin 15 with surely a myriad of different issues affecting it, it is a service which is well worth engaging with for anyone in need.

Further information can be got at www.migrantproject.ie tel. 086 202 4301 or www.crosscare.ie/housingandwelfare tel. 086 171 5697 or by calling in to the office at Main Street, Blanchardstown on Monday afternoons.

 

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