Young SVP East Region Newsletter 2020 Winter

Society of St Vincent de Paul

EAST REGION NEWS WINTER 2020

SVP EAST REGION QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER

"The work of Vincent de Paul never grows old: who would not wish to continue it?"

Blessed Frederic Ozanam

Time for Reflection

As the darkness of winter comes to an end and the evenings start to brighten, I want to take some time to reflect on those we have helped and contemplate how effective our help is to those in need.

I ask this while thinking of those we assist who readily accept and need the ‘now’ help, but find it challenging to plan and seek guidance for the longer term. As Members, trying to get the balance right can be difficult, especially when we know people are in dire need.

SVP House 91/92 Sean McDermott Street Dublin 1 info.east@svp.ie (01) 8550022

175 Year Gathering IN THIS ISSUE IN THIS ISSUE

WordPower Update Annual Retail Awards

To reflect I ask myself How do we determine we are getting the full picture?

When do we decide the help required is outside the Conference remit and too vast for the Conference to deal with?

Who can help the client and where can they turn to?

We should always remember the core values and the ethos of the SVP and the importance of listening, understanding and patience.

This is where our networking with others comes to the fore – discussing with Members, Conferences, Area Council, Regional Council while not excluding the advice of statutory agencies in better position to help.

I pray for guidance from our founder, Frederic Ozanam, in dealing with these diverse and difficult situations. We will continue to endeavour and do the very best we possibly can.

“The work of Vincent de Paul never grows old: who would not wish to continue it?” (Frederic Ozanam).

Ozanam House Christmas at SVP

Youth Day 175 Years Commemorative Plaque Energy Poverty and Mass

Sustainable Fashion Young SVP Hold One World Week Event & much more Ozanam Come Dancing

& more

Yours fraternally,

___________________ Tom O' Doherty Kildare North Area President

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Christmas Time in the East Region

Ericka Fitzgerald

2019 was our busiest Christmas in the East Region having received 12,000 calls for assistance in two months. Fortunately, members of the public and businesses all around Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow were very generous in their support this year, with the East Region taking in €1.2 million in financial donations. To add to this, 532 businesses and schools supported our Christmas campaigns such as the Giving Tree and Food Appeal. To help us cope with the huge volume of toys and food received, we had corporate volunteers in sorting through our very busy warehouse, helping volunteers gather items for distribution amongst local families.

This year we had several donor-led fundraisers including a yoga instructor offering a hot, healthy yoga class followed by a healthy breakfast and all proceeds would be donated to SVP. Following the success from this event, many of the attendees offered to match the donation made by the teacher and this fundraiser brought in €3000 for us here in the East. We would like to use this space to thank everyone who helped in our 2019 Christmas campaign for their much-needed support, whether through volunteering or donating food, gifts or Food & Toy donations in the Christmas Warehouse money – it has been very much appreciated.

Holy Name Conference

Annmarie O'Sullivan

Holy Name Conference is based in Beechwood Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Like most Conferences we rely on our Annual Christmas collection to give us a welcome boost in funding, but sadly this year we were disappointed to see that our collection was not as successful as previous years. Hoping to raise some additional funds we asked the Priests of the Parish if they would kindly make a final appeal at masses the following Sunday for additional donations.

Singing in the Children’s Choir that day was 5-year-old Emma who asked her mum all about SVP. Imagine our delight and amazement when about 10 days later we heard that Emma Elliott had been busy making and selling beautiful Christmas tree decorations to raise funds for SVP and that via an online funding page and sales in the Church after mass she had managed to raise an astonishing €2,741.

Words cannot express our huge gratitude to Emma and her mum Hayley, they represent the true and magical spirit of Christmas!

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Christmas at St. Clare’s, Priorswood

Patrick O'Gorman

Once the children have returned to school in September, we hear the mothers we visit becoming anxious about how they can manage Christmas for their families. Saving for Christmas is generally not an option as there is never enough money to last the week. So, from November we, in St. Clare’s become Hunter/Gatherers for our families.

We aim to provide hampers, vouchers, energy vouchers and gifts for the families we visit. This of course we cannot do just on our own. We are very fortunate that for many years Sutton Park School has become a major player in providing us with food for our hampers and the use of their Hall in which to pack the hampers. On hamper day we are assisted by a number of energetic students who work so hard and carefully to ensure that we usually have 90 hampers packed and ready to go by midday. The students of St Fintan’s High school, Sutton also help by collecting food items and these together with some treats that we source ourselves through “wheeling and dealing” with some stores, all go to make up really good hampers. Naturally Christmas hampers should contain a lot of “bad for you stuff” as well as essentials! In addition to the 90 hampers from the schools, the Howth/Sutton Lions Club generously give us some of the hampers they pack.

On hamper day this year it struck me how much love, caring and generosity is packed into each hamper and we talked about this with the students. It starts with a parent deciding what food item to pick to give and we can only begin to imagine the thoughts involved in that process. Then the item is delivered to the collecting point, then moved to the hall and selected for a hamper. Then hampers are loaded into the van and finally delivered with care to each home.

A journey of love and solidarity!

We visit later in the day after the hampers are delivered and bring food vouchers, Brendan O’Carroll vouchers for turkey and ham, energy top up vouchers, gift vouchers and toys according to what each family needs.

What can I say about the toys! Well a trip to head office to select the toys makes you realise a little of what Santa Claus must feel! What an Aladdin’s cave of toys! It makes you think again of the journey of each toy from being lovingly selected and placed on the Giving Tree to being taken to Head Office and sorted by the staff there and waiting to be chosen by us volunteers for particular children. The volunteer staff in there are so enthusiastic! I was looking for a soft toy dog for one of the children who collects them! I mentioned it to a volunteer and within minutes operation “dog” was in full swing. Within minutes a Dog was found who unfortunately had to be rejected as it would need not only a dog basket but more likely a room! Happy ending though as we found two others of more manageable size.

The gift tokens for various shops which are collected by Nuala and staff at Head Office make a great difference especially to the older children and to some of the adults. One mother we visit looks after not just her family but members of her extended family and probably never buys for herself. When we gave her, a Boots voucher she was so surprised and delighted that we wished the person who bought it could have witnessed the reaction.

So, in hunting and gathering we cover a lot of ground and meet amazingly generous people.

Just a few are mentioned above. We in St Clare’s would like to express our thanks to everybody who in a small way or a bigger way makes our Christmas effort a success for the families we visit.

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11th Annual Retail Awards On 4th January 2020 the East Region held the 11th Annual Retail Awards in the Convention Centre Dublin. It was a themed event celebrating the roaring 1920’s as we headed into 2020.

220 people attended from all functions of the Region, Shops, Warehouse, Members, Senior Management and most importantly Volunteers.

Lynn Byrne, Regional Retail Manager East who organised and hosted the event for her Region, invited all the members of the East Management on stage during the ceremony to present awards to winners in each category from their respective functions, Warehouse, Retail and Community Employment. She also thanked them for their hard work and dedication to SVP in helping her run East Region Retail and deliver its most successful year to date, delivering Sales of €8.4 million from the 42 Vincent’s Shops.

Anna Gucia receives Manager of the Year Award

Of course we cannot do any of this work without our amazing volunteers. Speech bubbles appeared on screen describing the volunteers who had been nominated by their Shop Mangers for the prestigious Volunteer of the Year award. “Gives amazing customers service to everyone who come into the shop” “shop manager of the future” “a real asset to SVP” just a few of the descriptions.

Kit Farrell from Athy and Sean Hogan from Newtownmountkennedy gave moving volunteer testimonials describing their love for SVP and enjoyment volunteering in our shops. “Hall of Fame” then played as 20 Volunteers of the Year were then called up on stage to be presented with engraved glass trophies & chocolates acknowledge their contribution to Vincent’s. Thank you!

Eileen Flanagan, Chair of East Region Shops Committee was present with a Significant Contribution Award as she steps down after 5 years service to East Region.

The Manager of the Year was Anna Gucia from Georges St, who not only delivered a very successful year for her shop she also undertook to train all of her peers in the East Region on Manual Handling.

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SVP Unveil Plaque Where First Meeting Was Held in Ireland, 175 Years Ago Jim Walsh On the 8th December 2019 the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) marked its 175th anniversary in Ireland with the unveiling of a plaque in Charles Street West in Dublin on the site where the first meeting to form the Society in Ireland took place.

The unveiling of the plaque on Ormond Building in Charles Street West, was performed by Kieran Stafford, SVP National President and Bernie Hogan, President of St. Michan’s Conference, which was the first Conference of SVP to be established in 1844. On Monday 16 December 1844 at 8.30pm seven men, including two clergymen, held a meeting at the White Cross Rooms in Charles Street West in the Parish of St Michan, Dublin, to plan the introduction of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Ireland.

Kieran Stafford & Bernie Hogan unveil the plaque

During the following year they went on to establish five branches throughout Dublin.

Now 175 years later SVP is the best known and most widely supported organisation of social concern and action in Ireland with over 11,500 volunteers and 1200 Conferences active in every county in Ireland serving the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities. Since its foundation the Society has provided help and support to those most in need, through the Famine in the 19th century, two World Wars, an Uprising, a Civil War and cycles of economic austerity.

“Sadly today we still see poverty in many different situations and circumstances’ said SVP National President Kieran Stafford. “There are almost 750,000 living below the poverty line including 100,000 people at work; record numbers of homeless; 50% of lone parent families experiencing deprivation and 61% of families struggling with education costs." “We know and meet the people behind the figures every week bringing friendship and support.” he said.

The plaque unveiling was followed by Mass and social gathering for members. Long service medals were presented to volunteers.

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Long Service Medals Awarded to SVP Members

Member

Tommy O'Reilly Rose Kearney Angela Doyle Yvonne McGivern Michael Cassidy Ray O'Connor Adrienne O'Toole Bernadette Boland Charlotte Vaughan Don O'Brien Tony Ryder David O'Hanrahan Maria O'Hanrahan Monica O'Reilly Celia Armelin Bernadette Hogan Ian Bolger Chris McCarty Ann Allen Timothy Lane Mai Cass Ann Devlin Liz Moore Ann Cole Frank Cole Anne Flynn Michael Nash Battie White Christine Walsh Brian Donnelly Stephen Dollard Moira Fogarty Cis Sherwood

Conference

Service

St Camillus De Lellis Stella Maris St Joseph, Glasthule Nativity Bum, Lexilip Sacred Heart, Donnybrook Guardian Angel, Sallins The Annunciation, Rathfarnham St Columba, Iona Road St Anne, Killinarden Immaculate Heart of Mary Blessed Ferrini Youth Club Blessed Edmund Rice, Dublin Blessed Edmund Rice, Dublin Blessed Edmund Rice, Dublin St Laurence O'Toole Youth Club St Michan, Halston Street St Laurence O'Toole Youth Club Immaculate Heart of Mary The Assumption, Howth Our Lady of Lourdes, Dun Laoghaire St Paul, Ayrfield Our Lady of Lourdes, Dun Laoghaire Immaculate Heart of Mary St John The Evangelist, Kilbarrack St John The Evangelist, Kilbarrack Our Lady of Dolours, Dolphins Barn The Assumption, Howth St Anne, Killinarden St Anne, Killinarden St Francis Of Assisi, Church Street St Jude, Templeogue St Patrick & St Brigid, Clane Our Lady of Lourdes, Dun Laoghaire

54 Years 51 Years 50 years 50 Years 50 years 50 years 50 years 50 years 50 years 46 Years 45 Years 42 years 40 years 40 years 38 Years 37 years 34 Years 30 Years 29 years 29 years 28 years 28 years 25 Years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 25 years 20 years

Brian Brennan Retires as an SVP Member after 67 Years Teresa Moore

Brian Brennan, who has recently retired as President of the Conference of St Dominic, Newbridge (which runs the social housing project and Day Centre at Ryan’s Field), has been a member of the Society for 67 years.

He joined the Society while at school in Colaiste Mhuire, Dublin and progressed to the Conference of Comhaltas Mhuire working in family visitation in the north inner city. In the 1960s Brian was a member of the Society’s National Youth Committee at a time when many young members were attracted to the Society.

An accountant by profession, Brian served for many years as National Treasurer.

On relocating to Newbridge in the 70s Brian joined the local visitation Conference of St Conleth where over the years he was President and Treasurer and until recently an active member.

Brian was very involved in the decision of the Conference of St Conleth to set up a social housing project and Day Centre in Newbridge over 20 years ago which is now run by the Conference of St Dominic. Brian represented that Conference on the East Region Social Housing Committee. We acknowledge the tremendous service Brian has given to the Society for many years in a variety of responsible roles and wish him well in his retirement.

Brian receiving his long service medal & certificate

"I asked if he ever felt like giving it up and he said never."

"He said the one thing that he will remember always is the generosity of the people who donated over the years."

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Ozanam Come Dancing is Back Following on from the huge success of the event for the past few years, Ozanam Come Dancing is back!

This year’s event will take place in Liberty Hall, Dublin 1 on Friday 8th March 2019. Doors will open at 6.30 pm and the show starts at 7.30 pm. This year, 12 couples are volunteering their time to learn a dance by March 8th and this year they include staff from SVP National Office and East Region and volunteers from Ozanam House as well as various associated companies across Dublin.

The event once again will be hosted by the wonderful Brendan Courtney and will be judged on the night by our celebrity judging panel that will again include the wonderful Katherine Lynch as well as our resident dance expert Mr Brian Keogh.

Conference

For more information and up to date news, visit our events page!

Support our Dancers & Ozanam House.

Vote for our dancers and support our fundraising event. €1 Donated is a vote for your favourite couple!

http://blog.ozanamhouse.ie/category/fundraising-events/ozanam-comedancing-2020/ VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE COUPLE HERE! https://www.svp.ie/ocd2020

WordPower During December WordPower ran a Christmas Appeal in collaboration with Kildare FM and Kildare and Wicklow Libraries.

Three radio interviews were given about WordPower and there was an accompanying social media campaign on Instagram @svpwordpower.

A list of Recommended Reads was compiled and published to help people decide on books to donate and this was sent out to companies along with the Giving Tree information. The appeal resulted in a large number of donations.

We received many lovely books for a variety of age groups and these are available to participating and new Conferences who would like to place a book request.

Hana Hassoubah

An external evaluation of WordPower has commenced and many Conferences are taking part. We are looking forward to hearing the feedback from the families and children who have received books from us. This evaluation will tell us how we are doing and if there's anything more that we can do in the future.

World Book Day 2020 is coming up on the 5th of March.

WordPower will be taking part.

The Theme this year is 'Share a Million Stories' Keep an eye on our instagram @svpwordpower to see what we have planned!

To request books for your Conference please email wordpower.east@svp.ie

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Profile of an Area President

Elaine McGovern

My name is Elaine Mc Govern. I live and work in Dublin. I work as a primary school teacher in Littlepace, Dublin 15.

I joined SVP in December 2013 at the age of 23. I volunteer in St. Marks Conference in Finglas South, Dublin 11. In January 2016 I was elected Area President for the Finglas/Cabra Area Council. I have just begun the final year of my five year term of office. In January 2019 I became a member of the East Region Board and have enjoyed the work that being a board member brings.

Why did you decide to volunteer with SVP? I have always been a ‘people person’ and having graduated from college in 2011 and gotten my career off to a good start, I decided I would like to do something with my free time. SVP was a charity that I was aware of, having seen notices in my local church, Christmas appeals and other fundraising notices. Not knowing too much about the work they did, I listened intently to a member of SVP in the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians on the Navan Road during a recruitment drive in 2013. Before mass had finished I had decided SVP was the charity for me.

An overview of the work of the SVP coupled with stories of families experiencing hardship in my own locality caught my attention. A line that has stayed with me from that man’s short talk mentioned the privilege it is to be invited into someone’s home – a unique opportunity afforded only to members of our Society. On Monday morning I expressed an interest in becoming a volunteer and, as the saying goes, the rest is history.

How would you describe your role within SVP? My main role within the Society at present is that of Area President. It is an all-encompassing role which can become timeconsuming at particular times of the year but always very rewarding. I particularly enjoy the wide range of responsibilities which it incorporates – regular Conference visits, organising Area Gatherings, sharing knowledge, meeting outside agencies etc. I am very lucky to be extremely well supported by my own Conference and the eight other Conferences in Finglas/Cabra. I see my role as being a support to Conference Presidents predominantly, but I enjoy hearing stories and experiences of members during my visits to Conferences.

Are there particular issues your members are encountering?

1) In recent months the volunteers in Finglas have been introduced to the world that exists under the Direct Provision scheme. It is a new venture for us and we have sought advice from other members who have experience in this field who have guided us as we find our feet. Language and communication can be a significant issue and barrier when attempting to assess and respond to the need being presented to us.

2) Members find it a constant struggle to meaningfully support clients who have become dependent on the support of SVP. 3) Some Conferences are dealing with particularly large volume of requests for assistance each week and are struggling to carry out meaningful house visits. This has become the single biggest issue facing 3 out of the 9 Conferences in my area.

What are the main challenges for you as Area President?

Like most Area Presidents, it is a constant challenge to keep volunteer numbers at a sufficient level to ensure each Conference can operate in a meaningful way, true to the ethos and values of the Society. I would go so far as to say, it is my biggest challenge.

The role of Area President is very broad which can be a huge challenge in itself. It involves no less than twenty key tasks and responsibilities from regular visits to conferences, hosting Area meetings, recruiting new members, establishing relationships with other agencies, over-seeing financial on-goings in the Area, promoting the rotation of officers.

As a senior member I am a local point of support to the members when challenges arise on the ground. During the last 4 years members have sought my support with Conferences responding to need, adequate member numbers, housing and entitlements, assessing needs of those being supported by other agencies and quality visitation within Conferences.

Balancing a working life with my role as Area President is a constant challenge for me. Always striving to do my very best in both fields can be stressful at times. This is made more manageable thanks to the unwavering support of my Membership Support Officer, Maria.

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Have you identified any potential solutions to these challenges?

I have always found that inviting guest speakers to our Area Council meetings to be a wonderful way of injecting fresh passion and enthusiasm into the important work we do. I think this might help to share good practice or expert knowledge in a particular field e.g. speaker from a Direct Provision centre, members sharing their experience and ideas around promoting selfsufficiency or recruiting new members, member involved in another area of the work of the Society e.g. youth centres, speaker from Crosscare.

I think round table ‘sharing sessions’ for Area Presidents would very beneficial, especially to those Area Presidents who are newer to the role. It is quite likely that we are all experiencing similar challenges and coming to very similar solutions therefore I think it is important that we share ideas, advice and links with other agencies.

I think it is imperative that all Area President establish a relationship with their Membership Support Officer to support with many aspects of the volunteer role of Area President.

What are your future plans with SVP? During my term of office as Area President, I have always strived to maintain my commitment and dedication to my Conference which serves part of Finglas South. I look forward to being able to fully commit to my position as Vice President of the Conference again. Given the opportunity, I would also like to continue to my involvement with SVP at Board level into the future. Perhaps the position of Regional President is something I might set my sights on in the future. It is an important and time consuming job and I will only commit to such a role when I have adequate free time to dedicate to such a position.

Thank you to Elaine for agreeing to be interviewed for this article. if you would like an article included in the next edition please email newsletter.east@svp.ie

National Accreditation Process for Services Engaging with Children

Siobhán Laffey

Following the recent work of the National Child Safety Oversight and Implementation Group (CSOIC), the National Accreditation Process is now commencing for all our SVP services that engage with children.

This phase ensures the organisation is implementing its child safeguarding policy and procedures. This phase will include site visits and interviews with staff and volunteers.

The accreditation body is called Keeping Children Safe (KCS). They are an independent not-forprofit company that set out internationally recognised child safeguarding standards that ensure organisations working directly for and with children have comprehensive safeguarding measures in place.

Keeping Children Safe will be in touch with each service throughout the accreditation process. If you have any other questions in the meantime please contact Siobhán Laffey, Safeguarding Officer at Sunshine House at safeguarding.sunshine@svp.ie.

We have commenced with the first phase which is Level 1 Certification. This phase ensures that the organisation has an effective child safeguarding framework in place. All SVP services engaging with children have received a self-assessment tool from KCS which is a review of all polices and procedures in place at each service. Following the successful completion of Level 1 Certification, we hope to move onto the next phase which is Level 2 Certification.

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Young SVP Hold One World Week Event

Clare Mander

Young SVP have marked One World Week by holding a Sustainable Fashion event in Balbriggan Co. Dublin. Secondary schools students from North Dublin gathered in Sunshine House on the 19th November to learn about Sustainable Fashion, the work of the Vincent’s charity shops and how they can get involved through Young SVP. The National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) awarded Young SVP a grant to The students learned some striking assist them with their activities as facts about the environmental and part of NYCI One World Week 2019. human impact of the fashion industry. Leo Gilmartin, of the NYCI Did you know that it takes 200 gallons Development Education Programme of water to make one pair of jeans? said: “The Climate Revolution has That is the equivalent of 285 showers. reached the shores of Ireland. Young They also heard about how the people across the planet have become Vincent’s shops promote instrumental and a leading voice in sustainability and how they as young taking action against the climate people can get involved in this too. emergency. Young people want They were interested to learn that change and want a say on about how 95% of discarded clothing can be we treat our environment to protect recycled or up-cycled. the future of the planet and ultimately the human race itself. Young SVP’s activity was chosen from among a large volume of high quality applications from all over Ireland. We look forward to seeing the group take action during One World Week this year. Their work at a local level will play a vital role in supporting Ireland to create a better world for current and future generations and in setting Ireland on a path to Climate action and in Ireland achieving the SDGs”.

One World Week is a week of youthled awareness raising, education and action that takes place throughout Ireland during the third week in November every year. This year One World Week runs from December 1st to 8th, with a focus on climate action and invites youth groups and young people to think about the issue of Climate Action and young people – on a personal, local, national, and global level.

Now that the students have learned about Sustainable Fashion with Young SVP they are returning to school to plan their own One World Week Event. We look forward to seeing what they decide on.

Thank you to Loreto Balbriggan, Loreto Swords, Ardgillan Community College, St Mary’s Glasnevin, Holy Faith Clontarf and Skerries Community College for attending and to Sunshine House for hosting.

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Young SVP in Colleges

Síofra Dempsey

The first term of 2019/20 has been a great success for the Young SVP college Conferences. There are ten college SVP Conferences nationwide, including five in the east – TCD, UCD, TUD, DCU and Maynooth University.

Each of the college Conferences have different interests and tend to focus on different areas. Like the rest of Young SVP, college Conferences are student-led, and as each new group of students bring their own interests and skills each year, this provides opportunities to develop new activities. Some Conferences focus on working with vulnerable groups in the surrounding area, and others work within their own colleges to promote student wellbeing and tackle student poverty. The students at UCD are interested in homelessness, and so have been busy with Street Outreach this year, as well as working on youth activities. TCD are very engaged with youth activities, working with five primary schools in the local area, as well as running youth clubs and teen activities. They have also chosen Child Poverty as their social justice theme of the year, which ties in well with their other work. Over in TU Dublin (formerly DIT) the students are working on student wellbeing and engaging in activities with older people in their communities.

Maynooth University have been busy with Christmas Appeal events and fundraisers and have been coordinating with media students running a project on music literacy with children in their area.

This term also saw Young SVP running a campaign around the UN Day of Eradication of Poverty, which is October 17th, which was funded by the Department of Social Protection. Over the week of the 17th October and the week after, we ran workshops with each of the college Conferences nationwide on Poverty and the Cost of Living. The workshop draws on SVP Social Justice research and aims to increase awareness amongst students of the causes and effects of poverty, as well as ways they can take action to tackle the issue. We also encouraged students to take part in the Survive on Five challenge, in which they commit to a daily food budget of €5, which is all that is allowed for in the budget of an average single person earning minimum wage in Dublin after rent, bills, transport and other costs. The students in each college ran an awareness campaign in their colleges over the course of the week to complement the workshop and the Survive on Five challenge.

In November, we held our annual Intervarsity Weekend in the Ozanam Holiday Centre in Mornington, Co. Meath.

The Intervarsity weekend brings together students from each of the college Conferences for social justice and development workshops, fun social activities, and provides opportunities for students to meet each other and plan collaborative events and campaigns for the year. This year we had students from almost all of the college Conferences, and it was wonderful to see them working together over the weekend. We look forward to their collaboration on campaigns and projects over the rest of the year!

East Region Office Explore Sustainability What we do in the next 10 years will determine the next 1000 -Sir David Attenborough

Inspired by the new Young SVP workshops looking at how we can all live more sustainably and the environmental messages in the Vincent's shops; the East Region Office is exploring ways we can become a more sustainable workplace.

At our last team meeting we agreed to focus on: turning off and unplugging equipment when it is not in use, cutting down on the use of paper cups and to research sourcing recycled paper.

At our next meeting we will discuss how we are progressing and select a few more areas to work on.

I want your to act as if your house is on fire.

Because it is.

-Greta Thunberg

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News Snippets SVP East Region Lenten Appeal

Young SVP Survive on 5 Challenge

The Society in Zambia and those it serves need your help. We will write as usual at the start of Lent to ask

During the first week in March Young SVP groups all around the country will be taking part in a challenge

your Conference to once again contribute to the support of the Society in our twinned country, Zambia, through the Secret Bag at the Conference meetings during the six weeks of Lent. The ability of the Society in Zambia to meet all the demands upon them depends upon your response. We hope that Conferences and members will be as generous as usual. Your continued support is greatly appreciated.

from SVP. We are asking them to challenge themselves to survive on just 5 Euros per day for food and dining costs.

The idea is to gain a better understanding of the daily constraints a person on a low income in Ireland faces.

They will be helping us to raise awareness by sharing their experience on social media and with blog posts.

You can follow along on Young SVP social media to see how they get on.

Instagram: @youngsvpofficial Twitter: @Young_SVP

Save the Date!

Dublin Zoo Offers SVP Members a Discounted Rate of Admission for families you are visiting, with rates as follows:

Young SVP East Region Youth Day 30th April 2020 Please contact claremander.east@svp.ie for more details

For further information please contact Karen Gaffney at 01-4748944

Thank You! A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this newsletter. If you would like to have an article published in the next edition, we would love to hear from you.

Please send your article and photographs (with consent) to newsletter.east@svp.ie 12