Irish Elderly Advice Network

The Irish Elderly Advice Network was founded in 1993 and has spent 20 years dedicated to combating poverty, isolation and distress amongst the elderly Irish population in and around London. The charity was founded in 1993 following the deaths of 3 older Irish people in Camden. Each died alone and lay undiscovered for several months. They had become isolated, in poor health, removed from friends, family and community and had no one to turn to for help. These tragedies shook the Irish community and a number of older Irish women came together and founded the Irish Elderly Advice Network to try and ensure this could never happen again. In the years since, the Irish Elderly Advice Network has been hugely successful in empowering and supporting older Irish people. Through the provision of welfare support, social and cultural work, and a focus on empowering older people to speak for themselves, we have helped thousands of people and the numbers continue to grow. We offer help and advice in relation to health benefits, housing, Irish and UK Pensions, Returning to Ireland, amongst a wealth of other things. We offer a befriending service to help tackle isolation in older Irish People, as well as helping to run the Irish Pensioners' Choir and other cultural events. Our Culture Office, based in the Haringey Irish Centre aims to help tackle isolation in older Irish people by including them in Arts and Cultural projects such as community theatre, the Irish Pensioners' Choir, and helping to secure grants and funding for projects brought to us by the older people themselves. These projects have included recording albums for which we have been able to put the musicians in contact with recording engineers, recording studios and other musicians who are able and willing to help make their projects a reality. We are a registered charity (Charity No: 1115711) and are funded by the Emigrant Support Programme part of the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland.