Thursday 15th December 2022 – NCBI (National Council for the Blind of Ireland) is proud to support Depaul this Christmas by providing people experiencing homelessness the opportunity to bulk up their winter wardrobe.
NCBI Retail collaborated with Depaul by opening a pop-up store at one of the homelessness charity’s housing facilities in north inner-city Dublin on Wednesday 14th December. Providing over 400 free items of clothing, NCBI Retail staff were on hand, alongside Depaul staff, to help homeless individuals currently at the facility to pick out warm clothing to help them through what has already been a cold Christmas period and into the coming winter.
This is the first collaboration of its kind between NCBI Retail and Depaul, but the hope is that donations provided to NCBI Retail could again be made available in the future to people who are accessing Depaul services.
Craig Holman, NCBI Retail Area Manager, who headed up the project said: “NCBI Retail’s goal is to support the services and supports that NCBI offers to people who are blind or vision impaired across Ireland. While that remains the case, we are conscious that there were other people in Irish society that we may be able to help especially coming up to Christmas. This is why we’re delighted we were able to work with Depaul and hopefully provide some relief to people accessing their services during what can be a very stressful time.
“We look forward to collaborating again with Depaul into the future following the success of our pop-up this time around. We wish everyone who attended a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year.”
Caroline O’Connell Director of Fundraising & Communications at Depaul said: “Thank you to NCBI who are supporting Depaul’s service users this Christmas by providing quality clothing, free of charge, through their pop-up store. Our vision is a future without homelessness and we are delighted to collaborate with NCBI on this important initiative that will ensure service users are fully supported every step of the way.
“Depaul is committed to the prevention and eradication of homelessness and provides more than 600 bed spaces per night across 37 accommodation centres. Through our homeless services support and housing led approaches, we are ensuring people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are not alone at a time when they need it most.”
Pre-loved winter clothing is available at all of NCBI Retail’s 130 stores across Ireland.