"Working with people homeless and at risk of becoming homeless is constantly both surprising and humbling. We are actively engaged in service delivery across six counties in the South East, providing advocacy, outreach and tenancy support to people homeless and at risk of becoming homeless” says South East Simon Regional Development Officer, Chris Anderson... ...Homelessness is a major issue in modern Ireland, and in an attempt to raise awareness and generate much needed funds the South East Simon Community have teamed up with recent Top 20 chartsters 79Cortinaz in releasing a single Nowhere to go, with all proceeds from sales going directly to South East Simon. In the past 12 months 79Cortinaz have been Artist of the Week on Tom Dunne’s ‘Petsounds’ on Today fm, recorded a 2FM session with Dan Hegarty (the charity single has been taken from it, with kind permission from RTE and 2FM) which was repeated four times, played with Irish bands such as The Revs and The Walls, marked by 2fm DJ and Kerbdog frontman Cormac Battle as ‘the best thing to come out of Ireland in years and a band to watch’ and reached no 18 in the National Singles chart with their debut single ‘Deirdre’s Song. ‘Nowhere to go’, with your support, looks set to follow that example this Christmas and in the process raise much needed finance for the South East Simon Community plus help us all learn more about homelessness and curb this alarming trend. The single expresses a deep sense of abandonment, of being cut adrift and though we all experience such feelings from time to time, none feel it so acutely as those staring homelessness in the face. Released on December 16th, Nowhere to Go will be available in all good music outlets – please show your support by purchasing one. If your local record store doesn’t stock it, you can always purchase one (or a few) online at RoadRecords ( http://www.roadrecs.com ) Services for people homeless are now directed towards a more comprehensive and person centered response. As South East Simon Community develop the basics of an all inclusive service they focus on developing strategies that prevent people from becoming homeless in the first instance and early work in the area is proving to be very effective. The need to secure statutory funding to underpin work is the key challenge facing the community. South East Simon Community statistics speak for themselves. Feedback from service participants is a glowing indictment for work to date and clearly identifies the need for such a service. South East Simon will remain in the South East and continue to develop advocacy, outreach and resettlement services throughout the region. Their range of services have enabled people to get back into housing, main stream community, training and employment. Services are planned in order to provide an effective and cost efficient method of: 1) Preventing people from becoming homeless in the first instance by offering adequate support to people who had experienced housing difficulty in the past and who were at risk of becoming homeless again without support. 2) Providing people with information about their housing and tenancy rights and where necessary, to help those people access their rights through the system. 3) Providing people homeless with support and access into existing emergency accommodation I the first instance and then into permanent housing appropriate to their needs, as quickly as possible. 4) Helping service participants find, access and maintain good quality accommodation appropriate to their needs. “We have made some significant inroads to developing our work with individuals and families in the South East. We are aware that we have much more to do” South East Simon Regional Development Officer, Chris Anderson. concludes. Simon Community (South East) Limited, is a not for profit organization which was established as a company limited by guarantee in October 2003. The company is governed by a voluntary Board of Directors, appointed for their specific skills set and expertise from a variety of different backgrounds. All counties in the region have Board representation. Providing Advocacy, Outreach, Resettlement and Tenancy Support services to people homeless and in vulnerable tenancies throughout the South East Region, the South East Simon Community are affiliated members of the Simon Communities of Ireland and as such receive on-going support from the Federation office including training and evaluation, best practice recommendations, social policy information and some financial support and over 40 years experience of working with people homeless within an Irish context.