Drogheda and District Support 4 Older People (DDS4OP) have been nominated by Louth County Council to represent Louth in the 32 county wide, Pride of Place Awards.
The awards, which were established by Co-operation Ireland Co-operation Ireland over 20 years ago to recognise the work being carried out by community organisations across the island of Ireland, are sponsored by IPB Insurance and each county council gets to nominate community projects in their area.
DDS4OP were nominated in the Age Friendly initiative category of the competition and on Thursday last the judges of the competition travelled to Drogheda to meet representatives of the group at their offices at Haymarket Bridge to hear about the multitude of community services offered.
After a Q&A session that lasted most of the morning the two judges, Tim Caffery and Katrina Murphy, were treated to a short tour of Drogheda town centre in one of DDS4OP’s popular trishaws with pilot Ollie Gaughran providing the pedal power.
DDS4OP Manager Dave Turner told Drogheda Life that it was a lovely event and the Judges really enjoyed their Trisahw spin.
“We were nominated and assisted in our application by the Community Development Department of Louth County Council” he said. The next stage takes place on November 10th in Armagh when the winners of the various categories will be announced.”
Asked to describe the work and ethos of DDS4OP, Dave said: “We are well respected and trusted in our community by clients, agencies and other Community organisations. We operate a code of dealing with people with kindness and care and offer an encouraging safe environment for help and advice.
“We embrace each issue as important and help people resolve it as best we can, whether it is a grant application or battery in a smoke alarm the feeling of care and worth that we bring to clients is invaluable.
Pride of Place Award judges Tim Caffery and Katrina Murphy (centre) pictured during their visit to the Drogheda & District Support 4 Older People offices with (from left): Louise Rice and Finbarr Gethins of Louth County Council, Dave Turner of DDS4OP and Paula Gribben, also of Louth County Council.
“We offer a service that covers all issues and will go out of our way to help or find the right people to help. Through all our services we are most proud of the feeling of care, support and purpose that people get from dealing with us.”
For more information see the DDS4OP website http://dds4op.com/ or contact hem directly at any of the numbers below:
- Free Phone: 1800 200 100
- Phone: 041 9847764
- Mobile: 086 3772777
- Email: dds4op7@gmail.com
