Coventry Irish Society is an organisation which works predominantly with older Irish people with a specific target to support the vulnerable Irish. Our overall aim is to alleviate poverty, improve health and address social isolation in our local Irish community.

Vision

Our vision is to provide a resource in the form of an Irish Heritage Centre that incorporates a  a comprehensive health, welfare, and cultural service to the Irish community in Coventry. The Charity aims to be at the forefront of meeting the needs of the Irish community and promoting a positive sense of Irish identity, and a legacy of the Irish community’s contribution to the city, celebrating Irish Arts, Heritage culture and music.

Our impact on the community
We asked 50 clients/members how the Charity has helped them?

All participants complimented the help that they had received. That was largely including the technical help they had received, for example, the passport, pension, benefit, housing, or other service that had been secured for them. Several clients highlighted the fact that the assistance they received to secure welfare benefits alleviated their poverty. There was consistent and strong feedback about the warmth and friendliness of the organisations approach and how clients they felt they were treated. The warmth and friendliness people perceived was also described as making it easier for people to explain their problems and making their feelings of needing help and support and feeling vulnerable easier to deal with and assist the level of help they received.

For a minority of respondents, the charity has been a lifeline when they were feeling extremely low and despondent. Several people described that without the charity’s support they felt that they would have taken their own lives. Those respondents stated they were not sure of how they would have coped. They stated that the charity was the only people they felt listened to them and that there was nowhere else they could have got this support. They had come to the charity after being involved with other agencies such as Social Services. Below in our performance and impact section are quotes from the participants to demonstrate the impact the charity is having on our service users.

Irish born female aged 80

“The Charity helped me boost my Pension by getting me the higher rate of Attendance allowance that was after I had been rejected when I applied myself, this has massively improved my quality of life”

Irish born female aged 66

“CIS has kept me sane and has given me the will to keep living. If the Irish society hadn’t been there, I would most likely given up a long time ago”

Irish born male 83 (lives alone in social housing)

“They filled in forms, helped me move home, I couldn’t fill in forms, so it is really useful for me, socially I pop in and out, it is company for me”

Irish Survivor Female aged 71

The charity has helped me extremely well, very happy, never looked back. Communication with Irish people, advice and just being very friendly and welcoming”