Edel House to invest in services for homeless child residents
Cork women’s shelter Edel House is to further develop their services to provide support for homeless children and their families.
Edel House can accommodate 10 families and 18 single women every night and they support 50 families in B&Bs around the city.
At any time there are about 20 children staying in Edel House.
In 2018, they accommodated 128 adults and 31 children and operated at 100% occupancy throughout 2018.
Last year 75% of people who stayed in Edel House left again within three months while 25% of people were here for three months and longer.
Edel House and its sister project, Redclyffe family hub, are the only services in Cork that can admit and care for children who are homeless.
The plan to develop their services comes after a local business helped to redecorate Edel House's playroom and children’s sitting room.
Staff at Healthcare21 were on-site recently to redecorate the two rooms and they also donated bed linen, pillows, baby clothes and towels for the bedrooms.
"The women and children who stay in the emergency accommodation provided by Edel House, Good Shepherd Cork have benefited greatly from the support and goodwill provided by Healthcare21," said manager of Edel House, Colette Foster.
"We now have a beautiful sitting room for the children to use and now a lot more children and their families are using the room. Healthcare21 also took on the project of re-decorating the playroom in Edel House. This was a very worn space but is now a vibrant and fresh space.
"We support families in private emergency accommodation also. These are families staying in B&Bs and hotels. We have two outreach workers providing support to 50 families. We have child and youth workers supporting the children in Edel House and B&Bs.
Our aim is to try and reduce the impact of homelessness on the child's development and wellbeing.
