[Leading Cork to take its place as a World Class City] __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
• The Accommodation Placement Service is fully operational and continued to provide supports during the most stringent of lockdowns. The public offices remained open throughout the pandemic with no disruption to services. • The Place Finder service assisted 105 households to be accommodated under HAP in 2021. • Ongoing engagement with HSE in management of Covid-19 in services. To date, over 200 clients isolated since the pandemic commenced and 15 positive cases of Covid-19, with no serious health impacts to clients in our service.
Cork Foyer & Bishopsgrove COVID-19 Impact
Cork Foyer is a unique homeless service that offers quality affordable accommodation with education and training to young adults in Cork at risk of homelessness. Cork Foyer provides nineteen self-contained en-suite rooms, providing young people with the ability to develop crucial skills for independent living. The challenges presented by the global COVID-19 restrictions have been unprecedented and far reaching. Many of the traditional education and work experience opportunities were no longer available. The most effective tool in keeping young people’s retention and maintaining access to learning throughout the pandemic has been online courses. However, this presented a massive challenge not only for residents but for their tutors too. With rapid investment in our communication systems at both the Cork Foyer and Bishopsgrove, adding to the funding received from the City Council’s COVID-19 Community Response Fund, both services were able to supply the necessary equipment and online access. This was further enhanced by a small number of successful applications submitted directly to the colleges. Hopefully, these actions will help to reduce the possibility of our residents being on the wrong side of a digital divide following the pandemic. Despite the constraints of COVID-19, the much-needed refurbishment of the residents’ kitchen and laundry facilities were completed. Following the design and procurement process, work completed on the kitchen in August 2020. The new design and layout created far more room, better integration of appliances and a dedicated seating area. The feedback from residents has been incredibly positive, and it has been noticeable that more residents are cooking and using the kitchen on a regular basis and further developing their independent living skillsets.
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