Oakfield Trust

29/10/2025

29/09/2025

Great work from the legends at Recycle IT as always

18/09/2025

Meet our tenants – the one and only Clondalkin Citizens Information Centre!

The social impact Oakfield Trust makes wouldn’t be possible without our tenants, at the coalface, doing community work in every sense of the word.

In Oakfield Industrial Estate, we're lucky to have our neighbours - the brilliant crew of Clondalkin Citizens Information Centre. Their herculean work includes free, confidential, and impartial help to the public - providing information, advice, and advocacy so people can understand and access their rights, entitlements, and available supports under Irish law.

Key areas of support include:

💶 Social welfare and income supports
🏠 Housing and tenancy issues
👨‍💼 Employment rights
🩺 Health services and entitlements
🎒 Education and training
ℹ️ Immigration and residence
👪 Family, legal, and consumer matters

We’re very lucky to have such a great and longstanding relationship with an organisation making such a huge impact in the local community of Clondalkin and beyond in South Dublin. We look forward to maintaining this, and ensuring we have happy and comfortable tenants in our properties.

For more information on the Citizens check out https://centres.citizensinformation.ie/centre.php?cic=Clondalkin+CIC

24/07/2025

Meet our tenants – the South Dublin County Partnership! 👏 👏

We’re really proud of the social impact Oakfield Trust makes, but it wouldn’t be possible without our tenants, many at the coalface, doing the hard yards in the community.

At our property in Unit D, Nangor Road Business Park, we have long-term tenants, supporters, and collaborators, the South Dublin County Partnership (SDCP).

For some, local development companies need no introduction. SDCP play an absolutely vital role within the communities of South Dublin County and in all communities throughout the country. They promote social inclusion, support marginalised individuals, and build stronger, more connected communities. They have a huge and lasting impact throughout the region.

They are at the heart of community development, creating opportunities for those most in need, empowering local people, and fostering environments where individuals and communities can thrive. They address systemic issues in the areas of employment, education, social enterprise, and wellbeing, through many channels, including funding opportunities, mentoring, and training opportunities.

We’ve had a long and meaningful association with SDCP, not just in shared projects, but also through governance, administrative support, and strategic collaboration.

We’re very grateful for it, and like many relationships, we probably don’t tell them enough!

We look forward to even more collaboration in the coming years, initiating new projects, sectoral supports, and community-driven initiatives that will benefit the people of South Dublin County and beyond.

For more information see https://sdcpartnership.ie/

Pictured are:

Tom Coleman (Social Enterprise Development Officer), Myself, Catherine Robinson (Senior Manager Operations & Administration), and Bríd Healy (Senior Manager Enterprise and Employment)

16/06/2025

Recently we installed 24 PV panels on our property in Oakfield Estate in Clondalkin. This will greatly reduce the carbon footprint of the building and we hope it will also greatly reduce the bills for our tenants, the fantastic Dublin South Citizens Information Service.

Our sincere gratitude to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and SDCC South Dublin County Council - particularly Community Climate Action Officer, Ian Jackson and his team there, for making it all possible.

Thank you also to our suppliers Ecoplex Energy for their efficient installation.

We would love to show you pictures of the panels, but until we invest in a drone, a picture of the internal control units will have to do!

11/06/2025

As a social enterprise working with great community organisations, Oakfield Trust is always proud to be part of a sector that seeks to uplift communities, welcomes diversity, and encourages spaces where everyone can feel welcome.

🌈




🌈

10/06/2025

Meet our tenants – Deansrath Family Centre

We’re really proud of the social impact Oakfield Trust makes, but it wouldn’t be possible without our tenants, at the coalface, doing community work in every sense of the word.

In Oakfield Industrial Estate, we're lucky to share an office with the brilliant crew of Deansrath Family Centre.

Deansrath are going over 20 years now, delivering a wide range of evidence-based supports, within an area of high socioeconomic disadvantage, rooted in the principles of prevention and early intervention. Absolute stalwarts in the badly needed area of community childcare.

Services and supports include; ECCE (which also caters for children with special educational needs), parenting programmes and child therapeutic interventions, as well as a range of wraparound supports ensuring that their families receive appropriate supports to improve their outcomes.

When we're in the office we see them doing their thing on a daily basis and their commitment and good humour is inspirational.

I only got two to pose for a picture but there are many, many more. An absolute sounder bunch you could not get!

For more info check out https://deansrathfamily.ie/

19/05/2025

Meet our tenants – Recycle IT

We’re really proud of the social impact Oakfield Trust makes, but it wouldn’t be possible without our tenants – all of whom are truly at the coalface, doing community work in every sense of the word.

At our property at Crag Terrace in Clondalkin, Una Lavelle leads her great team at the award-winning social enterprise, Recycle IT. Recycle IT specialises in recycling Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). They take any electrical items with a plug or a battery and periodically operate a mattress disposal service for the community among other services. They are a long-established and iconic figurehead in the local social enterprise space.

Oakfield Trust is really proud to be associated with Recycle IT, and extremely grateful to have such a long and successful relationship with them.

It was great to catch up with the team recently. They're a gas crew!

If you want to know more about Recycle IT, check out https://www.recycleit.ie/

13/05/2025

Take the 1-minute questionnaire - https://forms.office.com/e/Z6dGugN6ME

01/04/2025

Really good news from the fine folks at Social Enterprise Republic of Ireland (SERI) - We’re delighted to announce that Oakfield Trust is one of the first social enterprises in Ireland to secure Social Enterprise World Forum’s People & Planet First Verification.

What does it mean?

People & Planet First is a robust verification mark for social enterprises which is recognised globally and adopted in 130+ counties.

The verification focuses on five core standards:

✅ Purpose: We exist to solve a social and/or environmental problem.
✅Operations: We prioritise purpose, people and planet over profit in operational decisions.
✅Revenue: We have a self-sustaining revenue model.
✅Use of surplus: We reinvest the majority of any surplus towards our purpose.
✅Structure: We choose legal structures and financing that protect and lock-in purpose long-term.

If other social enterprises would like to become verified, you can express an interest here: https://lnkd.in/eQ-nrVyQ

Thank you to John Logue and everyone at SERI for all their assistance and continued advocacy of the sector.

Department of Rural and Community Development

26/03/2025

Tom Coleman (Social Enterprise Development Officer at South County Dublin Partnership), and I recently took an inspirational road trip to Belfast to meet Anne Rafferty, Arts & Play Manager at the Bryson Energy Play Resource.

As you can probably tell we were enjoying ourselves. Such an impressive set up and such brilliant work happening there.

Bryson Energy Play Resource collect non-toxic waste materials from industry and redistribute them for free to over 2,500 groups and organisations working with children, young people, and community groups all over Northern Ireland.

Thanks to Anne and the crew for being great hosts (and some particularly excellent sandwiches). A lot of food for thought.

Plans are developing in Dublin towards the relaunch of a creative reuse / scrap store here. Watch this space as they say...