Go raibh maith agat

Over the past few weeks our website and social media pages have been busy covering all the promo and pictures of our fundraising activities; the highly successful Golf Day and our upcoming Irish Fight Night. Now as we reflect on all the support we have been given over recent weeks, we think it is important to remind everyone of the true side of our work that we don't often share.

While we shared fun pictures of our boxers, sponsors and golfers supporting our fundraising activities, our Outreach Worker and volunteers were busy in our office and in the community assisting people who needed our help.

Between Monday and Friday last week we assisted 14 clients and their families through distressing times. We ran our regular social drop-in in Bondi, Wollongong and Penrith for Irish seniors and our Be-friending volunteers visited nursing homes to have a cup of tea and a chat with those who may otherwise become isolated in the community. We began preparations for upcoming Mental Health First Aid training for community groups and information sessions for individuals and families returning to Ireland.

All this is only possible through the support given to us by our members, donors and sponsors. So, to all our golfers, boxers, volunteers, sponsors and supporters we say, THANK YOU.

New Free Online Counselling Service for the Irish Abroad

This Saturday 10 September is World Suicide Prevention Day and on this day Helplink Support Services (Helplink.ie) is joining forces with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the GAA to launch Cabhrú , an new type of support service for the Irish abroad. 

Cabhrú (meaning ‘help’ or ‘support’ in Irish) is a free online counselling service which will be available 7 days a week. Initially, the service will be available for Irish citizens in Australia during their evening times and each client can avail of up to six free appointments.

The Cabhrú team is working with local Irish support services in Australia, as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs Irish Abroad Unit, the GAA and the Crosscare Migrant Project to promote the service and encourage clients to avail of these free counselling appointments.

Lochlann Scott, Founder and CEO of Helplink Support Services, stated that “the idea for providing counselling to Irish citizens abroad originally came from Helplink’s counsellors and members of its board. Some of our clients who had been availing of counselling while in Ireland were able to continue their regular appointments when they went abroad for work because of Helplink’s online counselling service”. Mr Scott continued “When we, as an organisation, analysed current and previous research in the area of mental health and emigrants we found that they are very unlikely to make use of counselling services in their adopted country of residence. The research also illustrated that some of those who did attempt to engage in mental health services abroad reported many barriers, including encounters with culturally unaware counsellors, which made the counselling process more difficult”. Links to this research can be found at http://www.helplink.ie/cabhru/.

The organisation has plans to expand the Cabhrú service to other countries such as Canada, the U.S.A. and the U.A.E in the future. More information about Cabhrú can be found at www.helplink.ie .

LINK Conference 2016

10th Annual LINK conference 29 - 30 April 2016, Perth

April saw the return of the annual LINK Conference for Irish support organisations in Australia. The Claddagh Association in Perth were this year's hosts. 

The conference is an opportunity for Irish support organisations working in different states in Australia to get together and share information and experiences on the assistance we provide for our clients. We also discuss the common issues facing Irish people living in Australia and ways in which we can work together, and with organisations based in Ireland, to address these issues. Common themes this year included Mental Health, FIFO work and Immigration/visa issues. 

Among this years line-up of speakers were the Australian Dept. of Immigration and Border Protection, The Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, Crosscare Migrant Project, Irish Council for Prisoners overseas and The Irish Times - Generation Emigration.

We also enjoyed presentations on dealing with the media, family law, fundraising and the economics and emotions of Irish in Australia.

Thanks to all those who took part, and to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, The Irish Embassy in Canberra and the Irish Consulate in Sydney for supporting this important event. 

The Australian Irish support organisations present Eithne and Colin Bell from the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust with a custom made sculpture called "Flying Home" which was designed to reflect the important work they do by alleviating the financial hardship of bereaved families repatriating the bodies of loved ones who have died abroad back to Ireland.

Welcome to the new IAWB

2015 was a BIG year for the Irish Australian Welfare Bureau. We reached a milestone 20th year and celebrated this achievement in style at Parliament House. It was also a year of change; we welcomed some new faces on to the Committee and grew our team with the appointment of a new Coordinator and part-time Outreach Worker. 

Now, as we head into our 21st year we feel it is time to celebrate this ‘coming of age’ with a new name and brand. It is important that we retain our loyal members, many of whom have been with us from our incorporation in 1995, whilst also attracting new members to help us expand our Irish network in NSW.

Thanks to the combined effort of staff, Committee and volunteers, the organisation has evolved immensely over the past twenty years in order to meet the changing and complex needs of the varied Irish community in NSW. Although welfare remains an important part of what we do, we need our name to reflect the wide range of services we now offer; including social inclusion opportunities, referral, outreach, advocacy, and health and wellbeing services.

After extensive consultation with our clients and members, and a unanimous vote at our Special General Meeting on 20 January 2016, we are delighted to officially rename as the IRISH SUPPORT AGENCY NSW INC. 

Over the last few months Committee and staff have worked tirelessly to develop a new brand and logo and are delighted to unveil the end result on St Patrick’s Day 2016. Our shiny new website will promote awareness of our services across Australia and Ireland, and increase our accessibility for those who need our help. 

We hope you like our modern new look as much as we do…now go explore our new site!