Waterford Housing Association celebrates 25 years of building communities in the South East

Respond!, Ireland’s largest housing association, celebrated 25 years of building houses and creating communities in the South East and nationwide by hosting a gala event in Faithlegg House Hotel on Sunday August 26th 2007. More than 150 attended the event which was a thank you to the people of Waterford for supporting the organisation over the past quarter century.

Pat Cogan, Managing Director of Respond! said: “We wanted to show our appreciation to all those who had volunteered for, and supported the organisation over the past 25 years. We never envisaged in the beginning the level of growth the organisation would achieve and we owe much of our success to the people of Waterford who tirelessly fundraised every year and donated selflessly to the organisation.”

At present, the housing charity manages 4,000 dwellings nationwide, with a further 1,500 under construction. With more than 520 units in Waterford city and county, the organisation has provided housing to more than 1,000 people in Waterford since it was founded in the city in 1982. With a head office in Airmount, Dominick Place, Waterford, Respond! employs more than 430 people nationwide in a variety of different areas including community development, estate management, family resource and childcare, education, research and development, architecture and design, production, administration, human relations and legal affairs.

“For many years, government funding for social housing was almost non-existent and the responsibility was falling on organisations such as Respond! to alleviate the dire housing crisis which existed not only in Waterford, but throughout the country,” said Fr. Cogan. “Even though housing associations can now avail of funding and grants from various government departments and local authorities, the need for volunteers has never decreased. It is still very encouraging to see such active citizenship and goodwill among many of our residents with whom we work to bring about better access and use of communal resources for the benefit of the whole community’.

The event which took place in Faithlegg is the beginning of a programme of activities to mark the 25 years. Celebrations will culminate in an International Conference in Dublin on October 11th and 12th 2007 with confirmed speakers including Eddie Hobbs (Broadcaster and Financial Consultant), Professor P.J. Drudy (Trinity College Dublin)
Dr Rory O'Donnell (NESC), Fr. Sean Healy (CORI), John Fitzgerald (Limerick Regeneration Agencies), Sean Dorgan (IDA Ireland), Mick Wallace (Wexford Developer) and many, many more. Further information on this event can be obtained by contacting Aoife Walsh on 0818 357901 or emailing conference@respond.ie

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