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A Message to our Supporters
Dear Friends,
Last night our Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, urgently called upon us to come together; to ‘look out for each other’, to be our best and to show compassion. Without doubt the global Coronavirus pandemic is going to affect our entire community here in the West; our families, our businesses, our way of life – these are unprecedented times.
As a valued supporter of Galway Simon Community, I wanted to share with you some of the measures we have put in place to support those who are experiencing homelessness and who are relying on us more than ever for protection.
Here in Simon we have incredibly dedicated front-line staff and volunteers, who have been tirelessly coming together over the past two weeks to put additional measures in place to protect those in our care. Many of those we support have serious underlying medical issues and are very vulnerable – now more than ever we need to stand together to help and protect them.
Here are some of the practical things we have put in place:
- We have formed an emergency response team, advised by medical experts to guide us to put robust protocols in place in services
- We are following the HSE’s Guidance for vulnerable groups
- We have distributed hand sanitisers and other hygiene products to our clients, and we are providing ongoing support to clients around good hygiene and social distancing practices
- We have identified spaces within our services where those we support can, if necessary, self isolate
- We have been in discussions with other statutory and voluntary agencies to ensure that there is a coordinated and collaborative response to protecting those experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Galway
- We have published a full list of actions here.
We will do everything we can to protect our clients, staff, volunteers and the wider community.
As always, I would like to thank you for your ongoing support and for helping us to be there for people experiencing homelessness in this critical time of need.
I want also to extend our thoughts to you and your family, and also to all those in our local community who have already been impacted, either directly or indirectly.
We will be in touch with you over the coming weeks to keep you updated.
My warmest wishes to you and your family, stay safe.
Karen
Wednesday 18th March 2020