Galway Simon staff to ‘Runamuck’
Homelessness crisis deepens
GALWAY Simon Community’s frontline staff will set out on a cross country obstacle run over a mucky course in a bid to raise funds for the men’s Emergency Service where they work.
The ‘Runamuck’ challenge, taking place this Saturday, is designed to challenge participants both physically and mentally, while leaving them with a wide smile on their face.
Training has been underway for the past few weeks as the team test their agility and stamina, and prepare to tackle bale jumps, net scrambles and crawls, bogs, ditches, streams and a floating pontoon bridge across a lake.
Funds raised will go directly to Galway Simon’s Emergency Service, which provides temporary accommodation to men experiencing homelessness in Galway and supports them in their search to secure long-term accommodation.
The charity also provides the men with general nursing and mental health supports, addiction counselling and occupational therapy.
To donate to Galway Simon’s Runamuck fundraiser, or for more information, search Galway Simon Community on iDonate.
Meanwhile, Galway Simon Community, has revealed it supported 814 households, who were homeless or at risk of homelessness, across the West in 2021.
The charity reported this as being more households than it has ever supported before, and that it represented an increase of 26 per cent on the previous year. The households, Galway Simon says, were made up of 948 adults and 563 children.
In an “extremely challenging” environment, the number of people in Emergency Accommodation in the West of Ireland also continued to grow, jumping from 377 people in January 2021 to 504 people in December.
Galway Simon Community continues to highlight that the national Emergency Accommodation figures do not represent the true extent of the homelessness crisis.
The charity says the figures only include a very small portion of the people they support and that the true extent of the crisis is much worse as those sleeping rough and the hidden homelessness are not counted.