Austin Campbell has announced that he is stepping down as CEO of My Streets, the organisation that originated in Drogheda and has helped many homeless people to get their lives back on track, to concentrate on his role as Executive Director of the Robert Emmett Community Development Project in Inner City Dublin.
Austin served as CEO of My Streets Since February 2017, when it was started off in Drogheda under the auspices of Drogheda Homeless Aid, to run courses focused on confidence and presentation skills, creative writing, research and tour guiding, and offers graduates the opportunity to become paid tour guides.
“The primary aim of My Streets was to provide individuals impacted by homelessness with a positive platform to progress themselves and inform public opinion” Austin said.
“The programme did this through providing training and employment opportunities for individuals impacted by homelessness to become professional tour guides who had capacity to control their own stories.
“Allowing a forgotten and ignored cohort construct their own narrative- and the level of media attention that this generated- allowed My Streets to create an informed and accurate account of homelessness that outlined the value that an underserved cohort can have when provided with appropriate opportunities.
“I enjoyed every minute of developing and managing the programme and the decision to move on is a bitter sweet one that was brought forward by the difficulty of progressing a programme reliant on revenue generated through tourism during a global pandemic.
“I feel that My Streets requires an evolution to ensure that it remains a viable project with capacity to add value to the lives of participants and to create a narrative that informs public opinion into the future
I wish everyone the best and look forward to hearing about what happens next”
My Streets is a sensitively designed education programme that engages vulnerable individuals and re-energises communities, empowering understanding and action.
Since its inception My Streets has trained 58 individuals affected by homelessness and provided walking tours of Drogheda and Dublin to over 12,000 customers. Over 50% of graduates have gone on to further education, employment or positive housing outcomes within six months of completing the programme.
My Streets has been widely featured by international media- twice by the World Economic Forum! and has served as the model for the establishment of several similar social enterprise projects including Invisible Tours Edinburgh and Secret Streets Dublin
Taking over the role, which is a voluntary position, is Michael O’Dowd a nominee of the Drogheda Civic Trust who were one of the founding organisations for My Streets. Michael said that he was looking forward to the challenge of building on the great work that Austin had done.
