Mementos to kick-start Simon Week

Simon Week, now in it's fifth year runs from today, Monday 1 to Sunday 7 October and is a national awareness campaign involving all eight Simon Communities around the country that aims to increase awareness of homelessness and the issues affecting people who are homeless.

Kick starting the week in Cork will be guest speaker and former Governor of Mountjoy Prison, John Lonergan who will launch the premiere screening of 'Mementos' which is a rich and varied visual presentation of the personal stories and memories that lie behind Cork Simon residents' mementos, keepsakes and everyday objects.

Mementos began life this summer as a Cork Simon resident participation project which encouraged the sharing of stories sparked by keepsakes, little trinkets and everyday objects. The stories and memories flowed and have been compiled into a screening of evocative images and words portraying moments in the lives, past and present of some of the people supported by Cork Simon. 'Mementos' will be launched by John Lonergan on Monday 1 October at The Counting House at the former Beamish & Crawford site. The former Governor of Mountjoy Prison and recent presenter of 'John Lonergan's School Principles'  as part of RTE's Back to School series is an inspirational speaker and has been the voice for the most marginalised in society.

Other events taking place during the week include The Big Debate on Homelessness which will be hosted by UCC Simon and the UCC Government & Politics Society. The topic up for discussion will be 'Should Homelessness Be Everyone's Problem?' and the debate will also feature special guest speakers. The results of their own 2012 internal survey, 'Working It Out: Barriers to Employment among people who are homeless' which was conducted across all Cork Simon Projects will also be revealed with some surprising and compelling results.

Internal events taking place in Simon over the week include the Cork City Olympics which will be a special prize giving ceremony for all the sportsmen and women who took part in a range of sports and activities during the summer. 'Up Close & Political' sees Cork Simon users invited to a private meeting with local TDs in the County Council Chamber to discuss issues of concern. To celebrate Cork Simon's unsung heroes there will also be a special event called 'Stars of Simon.'

Saturday sees the culmination of the week with a music extravaganza in the City Hall to celebrate 40 years of Cork Simon and will feature over 100 musicians and singers including The Band of An Garda Siochana, The Cork Garda Male Choir, The Wilcollane Singers and special guest soprano Mary Hegarty. This is a fundraising events and tickets are €20 and €25 and are available from sarah@corksimon.ie.