Save Our Teach Solais

Save our Teach Solais (#SOTS): Help keep our doors open!

We are a Galway-based LGBT + registered charity, with a volunteer board, which is
responsible for the running of Teach Solais LGBT+ resource centre in Galway city.  We
have created a vibrant health and wellbeing hub, with a variety of activities that are
run from Teach Solais.  Some of these include:
 
·         LGBT Helpline- Galway branch of the National Helpline and mental health
talks/panel discussions
·         Peer support groups, for example-GOSSIP (Transgender support group)
·         Free HIV testing by AIDS West
·         Drop-in sessions every Saturday
·         Specific group sessions including a Queer woman’s group and Irish speaking
group.
·         Social & Wellbeing events: Meditation sessions, Yoga classes, Book club, Wellness
sessions, Self-defence sessions, aerobics sessions, photography, Arts &Crafts, Creative
writing & Storytelling courses, Intergenerational art sessions, Sporting activities,
including a running club and Teach Solais soccer team.
·         Recent Healthy Galway funding has allowed the organisation to expand the
various health initiatives run in Teach Solais to engage the community to improve the
mental and physical health of  the LGBT+ community.  However this funding stream is
unfortunately for  a defined period, soon to come to an end
·         Cultural competency and social inclusion training for professional service
providers working with members of the LGBT+ community
We are fully reliant on funding applications, donations and fundraisers and are
dependent on a volunteer board and community volunteers in order to keep this
valuable service open for the LGBT+ community. In comparison, other LGBT+ resource
centres in Ireland, most notably, Dundalk, Dublin(x2), Cork City (x2) receive ongoing
funding for core staff, overheads and other operating costs. No funded service is
available outside of these locations. 

Following advice from local representatives, we applied for similar stable core funding
through the HSE over the past three years. Two of our applications were unsuccessful;

the third did not meet our funding needs. The most recent application to cover a full-
time resource centre manager, an outreach worker for the county and running costs of
the centre was unsuccessful; though we were awarded €5,000.  We appreciate that the
HSE is under pressure to fund many worthy health and wellbeing services, but this is
truly a disappointment for our group that caters for an under-resourced minority
group in the west of Ireland. 
 
In light of this, we are unfortunately running out of options: based on their forecasted
income and expenditure Teach Solais will be forced to close its doors in November
2019. Teach Solais has become an essential part of the LGBT+ and wider community of
Galway and its loss will negatively impact the lives of members of our community and
their families.  
 Any help to save our centre is much appreciated!
 
Yours faithfully,
Board of AMACH! LGBT Galway.