Simon Community

rdf:langString Simon Community

rdf:langString The Simon Community is a charity which helps homeless people, taking its name from Simon of Cyrene. It was founded in 1963 by Anton Wallich-Clifford who had encountered many homeless people while working for the Probation Service at Bow Street Magistrates Court in London. Wallich-Clifford was influenced by the work of Dorothy Day and her Catholic Worker Movement in the USA and his original vision was to establish a farm and community in Sussex but local protests prevented this and the organisation developed as a chain of run by local volunteers. The Simon Community was co-founded by political activist Eddie Linden. A trust was established to manage the affairs of the charity but its administration was weak. Attempts were made to transform the organisation into a decentralised federation of homelessness bodies — the Cyrenian Federation and Homes for Homeless People. In Ireland the Simon Communities were founded by a group of Trinity College and University College Dublin students in 1969. It now operates all over Ireland, but particularly in Cork, Dublin, Dundalk and Galway. These organizations partly (about 50%) fund themselves by hosting a number of charity initiatives and events such as the . The remainder of funding comes from service contracts with government to provide homeless housing. In 2009, Dublin Simon celebrated its 40th anniversary. Anton Wallich-Clifford died in 1978 but the original community continues where it is based and active in London.