Search Results for 'Jacquie Horan'

COPE Galway has announced that Michael Smyth has been appointed as its new Chief Executive Officer. The local charity provides services across Galway for people who experience homelessness, domestic abuse and for older people requiring nutritional and social supports.

As we begin a new year and as I prepare to step down from my role of 23 years as CEO of COPE Galway, my reflections on the last 12 months lead me in a number of directions.

Paula Healy

A local charity is appealing to the public to donate vital funds to complete a new state-of-the-art domestic abuse service and refuge in Forster Street.

The transformation of the former Magdalene Laundry at Forster Street is to commence inside the next four weeks, and be transformed into a comfortable refuge set to open for use by COPE Galway before Christmas 2019.

COPE Galway this week launched a booklet to Remember, Respect and Record stories of the women who lived and worked in the Magdalen Laundry in Galway. The local charity sees the booklet as a way of acknowledging this painful history while also looking to a new use for the convent building associated with the laundry – a state-of-the-art centre for women and children who experience domestic abuse in Galway.

The annual COPE Galway Business Leader’s Sleepout has raised over €155,000 for COPE Galway’s Homeless Services. Twenty-eight Galway business leaders came together to raise these funds by sleeping out on Shop Street for 12 hours on December 1.

Huge crowds turned out for this year’s Christmas Day Swim at Blackrock, Salthill, in aid of COPEGalway’s Services for people experiencing homelessness, domestic violence, and recipients of services for older people in Galway. An estimated 8-10,000 people thronged the steps of Blackrock in what has become an annual family tradition for those living in and returning to Galway for Christmas.

Last Friday night was the occasion for COPE Galway’s annual Sleep Out where 30 of the city’s business and community leaders spent 12 hours sleeping on the streets in a venture that has raised €110,000 to date for homelessness services.

Childhood is for a limited period of time and cannot be reclaimed if a child has a sub-optimal experience due to inadequate housing, claimed Dr Geoffrey Shannon, Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, when he delivered the keynote speech at the launch of COPE Galway’s 2016 Annual Report.