Redress Focus Groups Form a Committee.
More committee members welcome. We wont be holding an AGM until later next year as were still only getting set up. We have begun the large task of setting up as a charity and for now we would really appreciate the help of an accountant and a solicitor for the purposes of setting up as a charity.
We would encourage everyone to watch the update video or have a look on social media at the bullet points from that video that was posted. This update follows on from the 25th of Aug.
We have now gone live with Donegal Volunteers who have been a fantastic help. If you click on their website i-vol.ie you will find all the volunteer positions we need with details on each one. They will advertise these posts on a rolling basis and on several different platforms.
Website Launch- almost there!
There will be an opportunity for each group to update their own group’s work on the website so I would encourage you to decide on who that might be so they can come along to training which MeanIt Web Design have so kindly offered. Once trained you will then be able to add your own updates to your groups section on the website on a weekly/monthly basis in the form of a blog. Michael couldn’t be here tonight but we are so grateful to him and his team at MeanIt for this beautiful website. For this it would be great to get pictures of any groups that are here and also a full pic of all volunteers here in the room and one of the committee.
I’d also be so grateful if each group could do up a list of FAQs with the answers attached then we can upload all of this to the website but you will be able to change and edit the info after the training from then on in. This is going to be an invaluable resource for absolutely everyone affected as nothing like this exists to date. We will include links to Debbie McCoys work, to Grant March work on backstory.ie, to Greg Hughes show when its highlights there and so on.
Media Companies
We have been really lucky to have been contacted recently by two media companies to help us with Marketing, PR and Social Media. We still need people to come forward to the Media Focus Group to help with all of this but I will be meeting Jess Harkin and Garrett Harte from Soisialta Management and Harte Media along with our website creator Michael McGinty of MeanIt Web Design on Thursday evening at 8pm to get started and from our conversations so far this is such good news and I thank them all for their invaluable help.
Redress Focus Groups are only 8 months old and what has been achieved and what is being achieved is nothing short of amazing, a true testament to us all as a community and what can do when we work together. We have grown at a phenomenal pace and together, I think you will agree that we are making huge strides in many of the serious issues this crisis presents. The support from the local community and the appetite to get stuck in and help where we can has been overwhelming.
We are at a point now though where the day to day running of the initiative is such that I can no longer sustain but we are making strides and I have been in touch with some great people willing to help, Ruth Garvey Williams who has offered to help us through registering as a charity and applying for funding and also Geradine Fitzpatrick our new Vice Secretary now onboard to work on the admin side of things with me so I am very excited about the future of RFG.
I am currently looking into several options at the minute including speaking with the council and John O’Connor about the urgent need for an office and staff with a view to it becoming the hub down the line. This is a crisis but they’re not treating it as such. As I said in my update video the only way this will work now is if we get a small office and a few staff and from there we can register for charitable status, then we can apply for funding for a hub and removal teams etc etc. I’ve made them fully aware that if we are not provided soon with an office and staff then Redress Focus Groups will cease to exist. Nobody wants to see that happen. Things may work out sooner than we think though as lots of progress is being made so fingers crossed and lets see what this month brings.
Following on from the update video – the focus groups
The Health Group – The group are continuing to try to get a meeting with the minister for health and it is looking more positive that it first did with the department initially deflecting saying this was a department of housing issue. They seem to be recognising that this is indeed a Dept of health issue and work is ongoing here. Please join the health group if you can lend to this side of things at all. George Hill will be continuing his surveys and will give an update on that here shortly. I’m sure he will be looking for participants.
Temporary Accommodation Focus Group – Myself and Shane Doherty are working together to write a submission on temporary accommodation for consideration in the county Donegal development plan 2024-2030. We will be submitting this within the next 3 weeks
Trade, Construction & Building Professionals Focus Group – meeting will take place here on Friday at 7pm with a lot of topics to cover. I will update on this next week but please make trade, construction and building professionals aware of this special meeting. It is a blank page meeting basically a starting point of where to go from here as we tackle the biggest construction job Donegal has ever seen. We need a workforce to start with and at the moment we don’t have one. The plans going forward need to be effective, innovative and cost efficient and we also must stamp out price gouging and underhanded behaviour wherever it appears.
Victims of this crisis have been through and are living through enough, we want to send a crystal clear message that unfair treatment towards victims will not be tolerated at any level.
Statistics and Data Group – they are attempting to gather the true numbers affected within the county and also the types of properties affected, house types, businesses, public service buildings, septic tanks etc. again I would urge you to fill in any survey you see from this group as it’s the only way we’re going to ever get a true number of those affected.
Banks and Insurance Focus Group – they were on prime time, will be doing talks at MAG meetings and today met with the Central Bank of Ireland. An absolute achievement in itself. We will be hearing from the banking and insurance group shortly.
The Mental Health & Youth Group – merging the schools focus group with the mental health groups as a lot of work overlaps. This group will now include youth organisations. We are having our first meeting tomorrow afternoon and will then meet at a later stage with the team at the University of Ulster. We will be a part of a multi disciplinary research group along with a team from University of Ulster helping with their research and collaborating where we can. A PhD student is now beginning a 3 year research programme studying the impacts of this defective blocks crisis on people and families.
I would like to remind people to register to vote as we approach election time. This is vital in giving us a voice so please look in to doing that asap.
In relation to the meeting with the full council, councillors and the executive I have spoken to the Mayor, Martin Harley. The request will be brought forward to a full meeting in two weeks time and after that we can look at when the meeting will take place. It is expected that a delegation of 4/5 representatives from Redress Focus Groups will attend with 2 speakers.
The intention here is to highlight issues which the council do have control over, such as the construction side of things, support hubs, temporary accommodation and a few other issues. The aim is to work with the council so that these issues can be tackled and resolved. If we don’t find a way to work together regardless of how things have been until now then so much that can be done simply will not be done or might but will take a much longer time if we don’t start working from the same sheet.
Next up is the amazing work by Joe Morgan and his team in getting a European delegation to come here to Donegal to ground zero to see the true picture of what is actually happening. Joe has been in touch to confirm that the Redress Focus Groups will have an opportunity to speak at the meeting being held on the 30th of October. His view is to focus on the Banking and Insurance side for this meeting so I have asked the group to let me know if anyone will be available to do this.
A new document with how we envisage the Support Hub has been posted on our website and social media pages. Please have a look and help us push for this by emailing the council, councillors and department of housing, health, etc as many as you can think of to make people realise the need for a facility like this.
I would like to ask that all enquiries from media or anywhere else be directed in future to the Redress Focus Groups committee rather than individual groups dealing with it themselves. We will then work together with that group on whatever project is happening. This is crucial in how we work as an organisation in terms of working together, PR, social media, branding which all directly affects our community and sense of inclusion and how we continue to build our credibility as an organisation which in turn will make each group’s tasks much easier as they try to resolve the many issues we have through various departments and officials. The Redress Focus Groups committee will deal directly with anyone wanting to work with us and you can put them in touch with us via email or social media direct message for now with a phone line being set up in the coming months. The email address is redressvolunteers@gmail.com
Thank you to all volunteers working hard on all of the issues within the Redress Focus Groups .. I invite any groups now to give a very brief few sentences on what they’re doing if they can. Please keep this update to a maximum of 10 minutes as it is vital we get time for questions and discussion at this support meeting.
Thank you