Mná le Chéile - Help Not Hurt: A Change Event, 6 & 7 Mar

Senator Lynn Ruane will provide the opening address at Help Not Hurt: A Change Event. 

Join us to create change for women in homelessness, substance use and mental health.

An innovative two-day Change Event entitled ‘Mná le Chéile’ will take place on 6-7 March in SETU Arena, Waterford City to explore barriers faced by women in accessing services in areas such as homelessness, mental health and substance use. 

Tinteán Housing Association together with the South East Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Force (SERDATF), Better Together, DePaul, Cornmarket Project, South East Technological University (SETU) and those with lived experience, the HSE and are supported by the Waterford City & County Council to host this free event.  

The event aims to inspire reflection and action for transformative change in service design and delivery in the South East, fostering a movement for change across Ireland. At the event we will hear from, and engage with, the lived experiences of women in homelessness, substance use and mental health distress. From this we aim to create more gender-sensitive responses to service design, delivery and practice for women with lived experience in the South East, and nationally.  

This Change Event emerges from a co-production symposium held in Kilkenny on September 5th, 2023, which involved over 70 women and numerous services from the South East. A number of barriers and challenges to accessing services were identified there by participants, with women saying they often experience feeling invisible, and being hurt when trying to receive help.

“The bar keeps changing, I’m jumping through hoops, the bar is higher and the run is narrower.”

This follow-on event aims to create a movement of change, involving intentional participation and learning from women’s lived experiences. Attendees will include policy makers, service providers, those with lived and learned experience and their carers and family members. They will get the opportunity to be part of the change that is so needed, in creating gender sensitive policy, practice and service responses for women in homelessness, mental health and substance use in the Southeast and for the whole of Ireland. 

Book your space here at no cost: