In the age of the sound-bite and the press release, the City of Dublin YMCA is a remarkably quiet organisation. But it gets a lot more done than some more vocal bodies in the social services field.
For instance, it employs 40 staff in Aungier Street in everything from fitness to youth work.
Its services, for which it has never sought State funding, include:
A purpose-built hall which caters for indoor soccer and other sports, conferences, concerts and community festivals; it is made available to local community groups and to schools.
A fully-equipped gym which has 1,100 members. Of these, 600 are unemployed and pay a nominal fee of £25 per year plus £2 per visit.
A fitness lounge used for health programmes, dance classes and physical education by school groups and older people.
A computer room which offers computer training and adult literacy programmes.
An education department which has provided computer training and personal development for over 300 young unemployed men and women.
A youth programme which last year brought a group from the local flats to the US to help build homes for Guatemalan refugees.
A 70-place childcare facility which provides places on contract to the children of Eircom staff, to help subsidise places for local children and for children referred by the Eastern Health Board.
An after-school service which collects children from school, gives them dinner, supervises their homework and provides various activities.
A key part of its strategy is to provide facilities of sufficient quality to rent at commercial rates for part of the time, and provide these same facilities free or very cheaply to people on low incomes.