A NORTHSIDE company is doing its bit to help tackle the homelessness crisis in Dublin by hiring ready-to-work jobseekers that may be at risk of ending up on the streets.
Country Crest, a progessive agri-food business based in Rathmooney, outside Lusk, is employing workers through a fully-licensed recruitment organisation called Employment Focus, affiliated with Focus Ireland.
This initiative is a preventative measure for people at risk of becoming homeless and it helps train jobseekers in order to get them fit for work to hopefully enter paid full-employment or apprenticeship programmes.
Chris Harmon, finance officer at Country Crest, said the experience with both Employment Focus and the worker they employed has really benefitted his company.
“We were approached by Employment Focus to look at a number of candidates for some of the positions available in Ballymaguire Foods which is a sister company of Country Crest,” he said. “I was quite surprised at the calibre of candidate that was put forward by Employment Focus.
“The person we employed from Employment Focus was as good as, if not better, than a lot of the candidates we’ve employed over the last few years.”
Harmon is hoping that the worker they have employed remains with the company for a long time to come. He added that Country Crest will be considering candidates for future positions at the company.
The worker, who did not wish to be named, described how his life is better off now after working with Employment Focus to re-enter the workforce.
“It’s much better being able to provide for yourself, it builds your self-esteem. Myself and my family are quite happy now, we’re in a better place,” he said.
Homelessness could become a reality for any of us with the current housing crisis as Team Leader of Employment Focus Niamh Lambe explained.
“These people are like you and I,” she said. “Anybody is a few pay cheques away from being homeless unfortunately and it’s about having the right family supports and structures in place to maintain accommodation with rising rents.”
Ms Lambe said Employment Focus is just a simple matchmaker between jobseeker and employer and that it is generally easy to join the two together.
“We basically line up the ball. All we want the employer to do is to kick the ball into the net to make the job happen,” she added.
“The jobseekers come to us ready and willing to begin work. They’re quite eager, quite motivated and looking for work which really helps the process.”
With Christmas around the corner, many of us will have thoughts for the less fortunate in the coming weeks. Employment Focus is always looking for more employers to come on board. For more information on how to get involved, email Niamh Lambe at lamben@focusireland.ie.
REPORT:Brein McGinn