SPONSORS

GALWAY HOSPICE FOUNDATION

The Galway Hospice Foundation, a registered charity, has been providing a Home Care Service to patients throughout County Galway since 1990, enabling patients with specific advanced diseases to receive specialised care at home, with comfort and dignity, thereby reducing as much as possible their time spent in hospital/hospice.

As a natural progression of this service, Galway Hospice Foundation raised €2.6 million to commission a purpose-built facility at Renmore in Galway. This facility, which opened in 1997, includes a state-of-the-art inpatient unit comprising 12 inpatient beds, a spacious Day Care Unit with associated treatment rooms, a base unit for the ever-expanding Home Care team, an Education Centre, and Administration offices incorporating a dedicated fundraising department. While Galway Hospice Foundation, through the generosity of the public, continues to fund the Home Care and Day Care services - which currently cost in the region of €1 million per annum to provide - the Western Area Health Service Executive (formerly known as the Western Health Board) fund the running costs of the Inpatient Unit.

The appointment of a Consultant in Palliative Medicine in 2000 enabled the development and delivery of comprehensive palliative care services in this region, notably involving clinical intervention at earlier stages in diseases and enabling the best quality of life possible for patients and their families/carers. Galway Hospice works in partnership with the Department of Palliative Medicine, based at Galway's University College Hospital, to provide this integrated service to the region.

To date, thanks to the generosity of the public, the Galway Hospice Home Care team has cared for in excess of 3000 patients in their own homes. Similarly, every week upwards of twenty patients attend the Day Care Unit at the Hospice for a combination of medical, therapeutic and recreational services. A notable feature of Hospice care is that all services, including Inpatient Care, are provided free of charge, regardless of each person's means. Fundraising events are vitally important in ensuring that Galway Hospice can continue to provide the much-valued Home Care and Day Care services to the people of County Galway.

GALWAY SIMON COMMUNITY

Galway Simon Community has been working with people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness since 1979. Over that time it has provided soup runs, a shelter, residential houses, a charity shop and more recently a resettlement project and move-on housing as well as other assistance to people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

In addition to service provision Galway Simon is concerned with advancing the rights of people who are homeless, and act as advocates for their rights. For Galway Simon homelessness is about more than being without a roof or a house. It is about lack of shelter, lack of security, lack of belonging and lack of safety. The organisation has received wide support from the people of Galway, and its philosophy of caring and acceptance has been endorsed by the many volunteers and supporters of Galway over the years.

Galway Simon Community currently operates ten housing projects, which offer a range of supported housing options with varying degrees of independence. Seven of the ten projects are open to both men and women. Some projects are ‘homes for life’ whilst others are designed for those who wish to remain for a while and then move on.
The projects are staffed by professional care workers assisted by full and part time volunteers. In addition, there are a number of paid staff that carry out the essential tasks of managing the organisation, fundraising, the projects and operating the Simon shop. There are also a number of full time volunteers who assist the paid staff and who commit themselves to working with Simon for 6 - 12 months. Alongside these are volunteer Co-workers who give an amount of time regularly each week to the projects, the shop, residents, or within some other area of Simon work.

Galway Simon is managed by a voluntary Management Committee, which provides direction and support for staff and ensures that the organisation is well run, provides a good quality service and meets its obligations as a limited company and registered charity.