SHARE is a registered charity, founded in 1970 by students from Presentation Brothers College, Cork, who raise funds to try and make existing housing more comfortable.
SHARE is a registered charity, founded in 1970 by students from Presentation Brothers College, Cork, who raised funds to try and make existing housing more comfortable. The organisation has gone from strength to strength since then, now encompassing 21 of Cork’s schools, whose students fast and fundraise annually at Christmas-time for SHARE. SHARE Homes:
SHARE’s 146 housing units, which are located around the city, are comfortable, secure and homely, with user-friendly bathrooms and security systems and overseen by SHARE personnel on an on-going basis. The continuous maintenance and running of SHARE’s homes dotted around the city at Blarney St, Shandon St, Blackpool, Grattan St, Sunday’s Well, Abbey St and Sheare’s St is a constant commitment for SHARE, one it is happy to undertake to ensure residents can live in peace and comfort.
2017 improvements:
The last year has seen great development across a number of SHARE’s housing complexes. 20 bedsits in Blackpool, built in the early 1980’s, have been converted, with the help of Cork City Council, into modernised one-bedroom apartments, allowing elderly residents to live independently with support and security. Residents moved back in in February. A number of housing units in Mount St Joseph and Dun Ris were also renovated and modernised to a high spec and refurbishment of Cnoc Mhuire included a resurfacing of the complex and new perimeter fencing was also completed. The work that had to be done to maintain these included re-roofing, flooring, lighting, tiling, bathrooms fittings, boilers, insulation and general repairs and this work is on-going and costly. There has also been work carried out to install ‘wet rooms’, which allow for greater accessibility. This is all in addition to maintaining the homes generally, along with the common areas, gardens and providing all the services listed here. Over the past number of years, SHARE have noted a community wide need for support for people living with dementia and a call for their careers to remain in the own home. SHARE developed a model of student visitations with their residents. Following a 6 week visitation to three people living with dementia in the community, SHARE commenced an intergenerational dynamic of two students and one adult volunteer visiting the person living with dementia. These visitations are aimed to give safe and attentive care to the person living with dementia and provide relief for strained families/carer. The success of the pilot led to the full launch of the programme last October, with six people living with dementia receiving weekly two-hour visits in the local community weekly. SHARE’S Day Care Centre
SHARE has also built the magnificent Brother Jerome Kelly Day Care Centre on Sheare’s Street Cork which can cater for up to 125 older people who are living in their own homes in the vicinity of the Centre on a weekly basis. The Centre is a welcome community centre for its own SHARE residents to enjoy also. Established in 2001 and offering a range of specialised care services to the senior citizens of Cork city, the Day Care Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 10.30am to 3.45pm. Availing of a range of medical and non-medical services, with a nurse at the centre every day, attendees have an opportunity to meet new friends in a warm, central and spacious environment. Day Care Centre attendees are also free to take part in a wide range of activities, at their own pace, from exercise and dance, to arts and crafts, bingo, singing, card games, baking and more. Other services available include daily Holy Communion, physiotherapy, assisted bathing and hairdressing and a taxi service to and from their homes for those who need it. SHARE Students commitment:
The SHARE students, throughout their fourth and fifth years at Cork’s secondary schools, undertake a continuous caring programme during the year, with weekly visits to the Day Care Centre and to common rooms at SHARE’s other complexes or visits to the SHARE residents’ own homes, if that is what they wish. During these visits, the students and their older counterparts enjoy a laugh, play games or sit quietly together to discuss football, fashion or the ways of the world. SHARE sees this initiative as a very important part of its ethos, fostering inter-generational understanding and a genuine caring attitude in those who participate. Both sides feel they learn a lot from each other, and they learn to appreciate one another’s histories, and the ups and downs of life. For more see:
https://twitter.com/SHARECORK or http://sharecork.org/
