Duhallow Community Laundry

Duhallow Community Laundry has been operating for nearly six years. It was initially established in response to the need identified by our Saoi Network comprising of 21 Actively Retired Groups across Duhallow and the Carers Network who highlighted the necessity for the provision of a Community Laundry service primarily for the elderly, carers and low-income households in Duhallow. In addition, Duhallow Community Laundry is also available for use by Lone Parents, the unemployed; those in receipt of Disability or Farm Assist payments, participants on the following schemes Tus/ RSS/CE; and community and voluntary groups. Margaret Murphy loading up the van with laundry Over the years, under the stewardship of both Anita and groceries for our customers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we increased our service to deliver groceries to our users in order to support the Castle and Margaret Murphy, most vulnerable in any way we could. our service has built up a vast customer base throughout Duhallow. The provision of a collection and delivery facility is an integral part of our service, as a lot of our customers don’t have access to transport. A significant number of our customers also live alone, so we realise the importance of the social interaction they have when they ring in to book a collection and wait for it to be collected and delivered back in a timely manner. Colm O’Connor of REVAMP was redeployed to the laundry service while the furniture The Board and Management are workshop was closed during lockdown. very aware of the importance of the social aspect of the service and always support the staff to ensure this remains, as we’re a public funded organisation we’re used to reporting on the impacts and outcomes of all our company’s services and programmes but there’s no means of reporting or measuring this impact of social interaction which is immeasurable especially at times like this. If Covid-19 has thought us anything is that the ethos of Independent Living is very important and in order for people to achieve this, they need access to social enterprises

Mayor Ian Doyle with IRD Duhallow Social Economy Chair Mary Wallace, Cllr Bernard Moynihan and our CEO Maura Walsh during his visit to the Community Laundry in June. that will enable them to achieve this.

Response to Covid-19 The onset of Covid-19 in March this year really highlighted the importance of services such as this. When the seriousness of Covid-19 became apparent, our staff contacted all our customers to ensure they were all feeling well and safe and to assure them that we were still open for business. In response to demand, we also expanded our service to meet emerging needs in a time of crisis, assisting with shopping, collecting prescriptions and dropping the newspaper etc, which we were delighted to be able to do.

Throughout this time, we were getting more enquires and the demand for the service was Paddy O’Connor, CE Supervisor helped in the deliveries to one of our increasing. With this in mind and to ensure the dual need to protect our staff regular customers Mary Sheahan. and ensure the service continued, we split the team in two to ensure minimal risk of infection and ensure if a staff member did get the virus, the service was not vulnerable to shut down and would continue. Additional staff from IRD Duhallow were redeployed to support the increasing demand and we are most grateful for this assistance. We were fortunate to receive additional funding from both Kerry and Cork County Councils and the Department of Rural and Anita Castle works full time in Community Development under the Covid-19 the laundry and oversees the administration and records Emergency Fund. for the service.

County Mayor Visit IRD Duhallow Board member and current County Mayor, Cllr Ian Doyle visited the James O’ Keeffe Institute in June this year during lockdown, and made time to visit the Community Laundry. He commended the staff on continuing to work in a time when the vulnerable we serve need our service more than ever. His visit gave staff a great boast on the day.

Angela and Margaret both busy ironing customers’ orders.

TESTIMONIAL: Patsy Vaughan “in all fairness I would be lost without the laundry and the fact that they collect my clothes and drop them back again to me, it’s fantastic. It is the best service ever to be honest with you, I really don’t know what I would do without the girls and the great job they do. I always look forward to the girls ringing we do always have a great chat which means a lot to me too, IRD Duhallow is a fantastic company thanks for the great service”