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FOCUS IRELAND HOLDING ON TO A PLACE YOU CAN CALL HOME Learning from International Experience on how to Prevent Homelessness
Wednesday 26th September 2012, Vavasour Room, Aviva Stadium Conference Centre, Dublin, 9.15am–5.00pm It is now ten years since the publication of the Government’s National Homeless Prevention Strategy and 7 years since the Dublin Homeless Agency’s Comprehensive Prevention Strategy. In the intervening years, statutory and voluntary homeless services in Ireland have engaged in a major shift in the policy approach to people who are already homelessness – from managing homelessness to attempting to end long-term
1850 204 205 www.focusireland.ie
homelessness. But despite significant investment and successes, the numbers who experience homelessness have remained stubbornly the same. Progress on preventing homelessness has also been frustratingly slow. The same period has seen a wave of preventative approaches of different sorts in the US, England, Scotland and Australia, and considerable analysis and evaluation of these.
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FOCUS IRELAND HOLDING ON TO A PLACE YOU CAN CALL HOME The Focus Ireland Strategy 2011–16 Holding on to a place you can call home signals a significant shift for the organisation towards preventative approaches. This major conference seeks to inform Focus Ireland planning for innovative service and advocacy interventions which will fulfill the organisation’s commitment to a shift to a preventative approach. Recognising that prevention is not an objective that one organisation can achieve alone,
the conference seeks to create and inform a debate involving providers, funders and policy makers about the role of prevention in the next phase of the journey to tackle homelessness. In particular the conference will seek to learn from international experience and research and in particular look at questions of targeting, measuring success and what interventions work (or are likely to work in the Irish context).
Conference Schedule 9.00am 9.45am 10.00am 10.10am 10.30am
1.00pm 2.00pm 2.45pm 3.00pm
4.30pm 5.00pm
Focus Ireland Head Office 9–12 High Street Christchurch Dublin 8
Arrival and registration Official opening: Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Jan O’Sullivan, TD Welcome from Focus Ireland, CEO, Joyce Loughnan Prevention in Ireland – ten years since the National Strategy Catherine Maher, National Director of Services and Housing, Focus Ireland Does prevention work? Lessons from international research Chair: Cathal Morgan, Director, Dublin Regional Homelessness Executive > Prof Dennis Culhane, Penn University > Cameron Parsell, University of Queensland (Coffee 11.30am) > Volker Busch-Geertsema, European Observatory on Homelessness and GISS, Bremen, Germany > Prof Tony Fahey, University College Dublin Questions and discussion Lunch Making prevention work – lessons from services Rachael Wallace-Lane, Head of Prevention Services, Cyrenians Edinburgh Coffee Round table: What needs to be done in Ireland? Chair: Gerry Danaher, Chair, Focus Ireland Board > Dr Paula Mayock, Trinity College Dublin, Children’s Research Centre > Orla Barry, Mental Health Reform > Local Authority Speaker > Speaker, HSE Homelessness > Speaker, Department of Environment > Catherine Maher, National Director of Services, Focus Ireland Concluding remarks Mike Allen, Director of Advocacy, Focus Ireland Close
Tel 01 881 5900 LoCall 1850 204 205 Fax 01 881 5950 Email info@focusireland.ie www.focusireland.ie
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