Caife le Cairde – Weekly Friday morning social gathering at Áras Chrónáin, D22X856

Description

Caife le Cairde – Coffee with Friends
Muintir Chrónáin are a community-based, not-for-profit organisation, founded founded back in the early 1970’s. Our core aim is promoting the Irish Language and all aspects of Irish Culture. We believe this is necessary to preserve the national identity. This involves a firm sense of commitment and an unselfish idealism. Muintir Chrónáin is situated since 1900 in Áras Chrónáin/ Orchard House, Clondalkin, D22 X856, promoting the Irish language, Education, Music, Dancing and Irish Culture in the wider Clondalkin and South Dublin County area.
We have created and built a wonderful community and facilities at Áras Chrónáin, D22X856. We noticed after COVID that many of our founder members and friends were not returning for one reason or another. We decided to start an invite them to a coffee morning. Fast forward to today and every Friday morning we have over 50-60 active retired members of our community coming along to Áras Chrónáin every week between 10.30a.m.-12.30p.m., baking cakes, sharing a cup, a chat, catching up, checking in with friends who may have missed a morning or two, playing a few tunes, singing a few songs, telling a few stories, bringing along the care (grandchildren), basically being an active caring community, all under the watchful eye, guidance and welcome of Don Harper and Gerry Keane. A huge success and one we are so proud of.

Aim of Initiative

The aim of our initiative is to encourage our active retired community to come together on a regular basis in a safe social environment every week through the activity of ‘Caife le Cairde’. It is important that our founder members and community enjoy what they have created in the wonderful community facility of Áras CHrónáin. It is a social activity where our community come together, share stories and songs and keep an eye out for each other. If someone hasn’t attended in a week or two we ensure that they are contacted to see that all is ok and if there is anything we can do to help. Knowing that someone is there to help, care and listen is important. We strive to include everyone and to ensure that they feel included and valued.

Who is it aimed at

The initiative is aimed at the active retired community of Clondalkin and wider South Dublin County.

3 Steps critical to success

1. Providing a safe environment for people to gather socially.
   After Covid we noticed that the majority of our active retired community we not returning to Áras Chrónáin for a number of reasons: (1) Covid, (2) Social distancing and (3) the fear of going back into a crowded environment.
2. Personal Invite.
   Initially we made a list people who we knew attended Áras Chrónáin prior to COVID and had not returned. We contacted each one personally and invited them to come along on a Friday morning for a coffee and a chat. We explained the back enjoying Áras Chrónain and the wonderful community of friends. We explained that this event is completely free and if they wanted to bring along a neighbour or friend we would be delighted to welcome them all.
3. Health & Safety
   We outlined that (1)we had laid out the rooms to allow for social distancing, (2) we have installed HEPA Air filter machines which assist in the cleaning of the air in the room and to help avoid spread of infection, (3) we deep clean the rooms and building every week and after events to help reduce the spread of infection .

3 Challenges in Planning / Delivery

1. Health & Safety
   If was challenging. We had to invest a lot of time and money into putting systems into place that would make the environment of Áras Chrónáin safe and welcoming. The Board and Management of Áras Chrónáin were fantastic. They made sure that the best advice was got and the best systems were put in place to build confidence in our community. This was a crucial and important factor in the set-up and success of our initative
2. Personal
   Identifiying a core team who would lead and deliver this initiative. We were extremely fortunate that 2 of the long standing members of Áras Chrónáin – Don Harper and Gerry Keane, came forward. Their openness, welcoming nature and drive has made this initiative into the success it is today. ‘Caife le Cairde’ is probably one of the greatest initiatives in Áras Chrónáin in a long time. It now haas a hugely positive impact on our community across Clondalkin and South Dublin County.
3. Sustainablility
   From day one we agreed that this was a longterm project and that we needed to plan it so. This is an initiative that we want to grow and continue to grow into the future. ‘Caife le Cairde’ has well exceeded our expectations. We are so proud of this initiative and we are delighted to welcome back and see our active retired community grow, develop and strive.

3 Outcomes / Benefits

1. Áras Chrónáin – Venue
   Through undertaking these measures we were Abel to create a safe environment for our community to gather back together. There was a distinct sense of fear and reluctance of people to gather in a social context. The health and safety measure built confidence with our community to return to Áras Chrónáin
2. Personal Touch
   The personal reaching out and invite was wonderfully received by everyone we contacted. So much so that we were told by many of our attendees that it was that initial contact and explanation of what we were are hoping to achieve and outlining the health and safety measures we had put in place gave them a new sense of hope of returning to some sort of normal social gathering after the very difficult and stressful times of COVID.
3. Health & Safety
   This was the game change in the initial stages of our initiative. We had to ensure that our active retired community would feel safe in venturing back out into society. We went into great detail to explain each of the safety steps we had put in place and how they worked. If anyone had any concerns of any kind we asked them to let us know and that we would do our upmost to address them. We wanted all our attendees to know that their safety and happiness is a priority for our initative.