Deirdre Coakley is Senior Probation Officer with the Probation Service in Cork. She has worked in the sector for 27 years and links up with Cork Simon to secure stability and support for the people she works with.

“The work of Cork Simon is important because it works. It works for the client group that I work with; it takes people out of the doorway and the ultimate end goal is into their own tenancy, and that happens.

I’ve seen clients that have gone through Cork Simon succeeding and rebuilding their lives, securing jobs, building relationships and building families.

There is so much sadness in my job that it drives me on to see that some lives can be rebuilt. It’s amazing; I couldn’t have remained in the work that I do for the last 27 years if it wasn’t for instances like that.”

Deirdre shares why she believes Cork Simon is so progressive in what it does…