by MrGluSniffer

Focus Ireland – Public Meeting

Image by infomatique
Focus Ireland launched a hard-hitting new campaign this week which aims to boost the charity’s drive to raise funds vital to ensure its services can cope with the growing demand from people who are homeless as the winter nights close in.

Focus Ireland parked an admobile outside the gates of Government Buildings featuring a poster showing a man sleeping in his car with the headline: “I used to build homes. Then I lost mine.”

Focus Ireland CEO Joyce Loughnan said: “This poignant poster captures the reality that some of the construction workers who built thousands of homes during the boom actually lost their own homes when they lost their jobs as the recession hit the country.”

Focus Ireland said there are also many thousands of families and single people nationwide who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and are at risk of losing their homes.

Ms. Loughnan said: “It’s sadly ironic that despite the thousands of surplus houses that were built in recent years up to 5,000 people are still homeless due to the lack of social housing.”

Focus Ireland said the charity has seen an increase in the number of people coming looking for support who are homeless as they lost their jobs due to the recession.

Ms. Loughnan said: “There are men coming in to our Coffee Shop who last year or the year before were working on building sites but then lost their jobs and got in to debt. They could no longer pay the rent and lost their apartment or flat and some ended up homeless. We are trying to help them to secure a home again and escape from being homeless. They are proud people and can find it very hard being homeless or asking for support.”

Focus Ireland said that successive Governments have failed to tackle homelessness despite the Celtic Tiger years as there are now up to 5,000 people homeless nationwide and social housing waiting lists have shot up to a record total in the region of 100,000 households.* (See footnote)

Focus Ireland said its new campaign aims to keep homelessness firmly on the public and political agenda in the countdown to the Budget. The leading charity has warned the government that any Budget cuts to existing funding for homeless services will cause a further deepening of the homeless problem and act to keep people trapped in emergency accommodation.

Focus Ireland acknowledged there has been good work done by Minister for Housing, Mr. Finneran, and his department in partnership with the Homeless Agency and other organisations including Focus Ireland, in improving services in recent years.
The Government has committed to ending long-term homelessness and the need to sleep rough by the end of 2010. However, the reality is that none of the Government schemes to date have succeeded in providing the long-term housing which is vital for people who are homeless, despite the surplus homes nationwide.
Focus Ireland stressed that continued failure to deliver housing will undo the good work done in the last few years and lead to a deepening homeless crisis.

The charity said it is already having to cope with previous funding cutbacks and a drop in fundraising income as it struggles to meet the great demand for its services. The new public awareness campaign urges people to call 1850 204 204 or log on to www.focusireland.ie to make a donation or to find out other ways they can support the charity’s work.

The charity’s campaign comes as Focus Ireland gears up to run its 2nd annual Key to a Home collection which aims to raise up to €100,000 this coming weekend. Over 600 volunteers will take part in the ‘Key to a Home” campaign’ which starts this Friday November 19th and carries on over the weekend.

The volunteers will sell Focus Ireland key rings to raise funds to support the charity’s work “to help bring people who are homeless in from the cold.”

People can still log on to www.facebook.com/focusirelandcharity to volunteer to take part in the collections.

Footnote* At the end of 2009 figures published in media obtained from the local authorities indicated that the total number of households on local authority lists nationwide was as high as 99,846, an increase of 78% in 18 months from the previous DOE total of 56,000 households in 2008.

*The new campaign explains that people who are homeless can be sleeping rough or trapped in emergency accommodation but what links them together is they all need a place to call home.

It is the second stage of the public awareness and fundraising campaign which began with two ads in the national press in September.

Article by Alex C Garfield02

For businesses, it becomes quite a difficult chore to pursue overdue debts. Concentrating on these insignificant financial matters might consume a lot of time. Owing to such concerns, businesses heavily rely on debt collection agency. The complexity of business functions demands professional services to manage business related issues. Reputed debt collection agencies function on behalf of the lenders or creditors in order to collect suitable payment or debts owed by individuals or businesses. They are responsible for handling tasks related to debt recovery. They possess the right kind of skills and expertise in collection of debts in an efficient manner. Depending upon the type of service hired, some agencies charge you with certain commission or service fee.

An essential benefit of hiring Commercial Collection Agency is that you are given the assurance of obtaining the money which is payable to you in a hassle-free manner. Outsourcing these services can serve to be an ideal solution for debt collection. Some businesses might not possess the expertise or time required to take care of unhealthy debts. It becomes all the more difficult when the debtors are out of range. Expensing your time to locate these debtors is certainly not advisable. Therefore, with the assistance of National Collection Agency you can easily rely on their facilities in managing the task of debt collection and delivering optimum results. Professionals employed by these agencies are highly experienced and familiar with handling all sorts of debtors.

The collection of owed money is considered to be the principle task of reputed collection agencies. They can effectively dedicate immense amount of time in checking through your delayed accounts. They are aware of the right tactics to be used for gaining back funds in a professional manner. Their work fashion guarantees exclusive results which distinguishes them from other modules of debt collection. Businesses certainly do not wish to spoil their relationship with debtors. Keeping this criterion in mind, debt collection services specially aim to handle this task in customer-friendly and polite way.

Global Collection Agency work efficiently and manage all kinds of negotiations. The debtor is basically acknowledged about the money which they are obligated to pay at the initial stage. If they fail to respond, then necessary legal actions are taken against them. The collection agencies are absolutely competent and well-informed about certain laws which are applicable when debt collection tasks are raised to legal acts. The role of global debt collection can be of great assistance for handling investigation and background verification of foreign debtors.

If you are looking for opting for debt collection services, then you can bank upon Collection Consultants. They provide assistance in directing prospective clients towards credible collection agencies and the best breed of attorneys who can effectively manage debt collection tasks. They can deliver extraordinary results and ensure absolute debt recovery. Their exclusive and streamlined services are made available at highly affordable prices. With the facility of online resources, you can gather more insightful knowledge on collection services. Avail such prolific facilities and recover the percentage of money owed from you!

About the Author

Tim McDonald is the author of this article on Global Collection Agency. Find more information on Collection Consultants here.

Debt collectors describe how they do their jobs–and why they prefer calling your relatives and neighbors!