KILDARE: Homeless service manager wins award

Jay Bobinac, the manager of Jigginstown Manor, a Naas-based centre for young adults coming out of homelessness has won a special recognition award for academic excellence from the Minister for Further Education, Simon Harris; the president of South East Technological University (SETU), Veronica Campbell and the Croatian ambassador to Ireland, Davor Vidiš.

Jay and Allen Bobinac are  twin brothers who came to Ireland in 2016 after leaving their native Croatia. When they came to Ireland, they spent a year on the streets of Dublin. On their appearance on Virgin Media's Ireland AM - Jay shared, "when we came, we slept in St. Stephen's Green, Phoenix Park. We have loads of stories; I remember one day waking up, one person was injecting drugs next to us, or we were once in Phoenix Park, and a deer woke us up."

Jay further explained what made a difference; "The exit from homelessness for us was in April of that year [2016]; we came aboard a service in town, it was a big green bus outside Cleary's clock, and there we met the chairman of Tiglin Aubrey McCarthy. We got onto the bus. We struck a connection with Aubrey, who ended up helping us loads. He got onto his managers, and he said - you have to help these guys - so Tiglin gave us Transitional Housing. That was our gateway out of homelessness."

The brothers began their educational journey by obtaining transitional housing with Tiglin, starting with fundamental courses in local colleges of further education. Jay praised the Irish system for being very inclusive and providing opportunities to get back into education. Jay further explained that their ample chance came in 2018 when Tiglin and the Institute of Technology Carlow (now South Eastern Technological University) ran a pilot degree course for those in Tiglin's care. Jay remarked, "The Head of Lifelong Learning, his name is Joe Collins, he started a degree program in tandem with Tiglin, and Joe gave us an opportunity to get onto this program, and from there, we graduated with a degree, we then did a Masters degree now we are on a par with everyone else."

Mr Bobinac has just celebrated his 26th birthday and his Masters's degree (while he is doing a second Master's degree). He also works with Tiglin running the Naas' Jigginstown Manor, aiming to improve his residents' employment, education and further accommodation options. On this, Jay commented, "I wish to take this opportunity to wish everyone all the best in the new year. May you have all the things most important to you. I also want to thank all of you Kildare folk who have supported us, all those from the County Council, and people like Mayor Evie Sammon, Fintan Brett, Anne Breen, Colm Kenny, Ollie Brady, and many others. In addition, local employers have played a significant role in our success. Big shoutout to Ciaran Murray of Dawn Farms, John Clancy of IGSL, Laura Mahon of Super Valu Sallins, Pfizer and many more. And let's not forget our volunteers and friends. Huge thank you to everyone".

Tiglin enters a new year by launching an educational initiative with South Eastern Technological. This initiative will see those in Tiglin's care accessing third-level courses. Jay explained that this is similar to the opportunity he received in 2018. He explained that those in Tiglin's care could be classified as marginalised as they may not access education otherwise. This is because they are affected by lower socio-economic factors and lack of opportunity (both educational and employment-wise). Therefore, this initiative will target those without access to education, thus combating social inequalities and building social capital.

Jay finished the interview with a statement, "I hope that I am an example of what a person can achieve with the right opportunities and support. I was very fortunate to somewhat grow up within Tiglin's support network. So I am glad to play that role for those in our centre. I am very honoured to receive this tremendous honour of the award. It shows that everyone can do it, so we try to create a stable environment for your people to go through the building phase. On that same note, if anyone wishes to get involved, this can come in many ways.