ESTABLISHED in 1999, Tar Isteach was set up to provide integrated support services for republican ex-prisoners and their families in the North Belfast area.
Based on the Antrim Road, Tar Isteach – or ‘Come In’ – has become a place of hope for local people in the community.
The voluntary and minimally-funded organisation has developed into one of the best advice services on all aspects of welfare rights: benefits, housing, debt and money management, health and disability, bereavement support and pathways to employment.
They also offer a counselling and emotional support service for all aspects of mental and emotional health and wellbeing as well as a youth project providing programmes of personal development, active citizenship, multi-culturalism, healthy living and peer monitoring.
Speaking to the North Belfast News, Project Manager, Tommy Quigley explained: “Tar Isteach is a community resource that provides welfare rights advice, counselling, training and education programmes, good relations programmes for young people
“The vast majority of people who come through our doors are here for welfare rights advice and on average, around 4,000 clients come through our doors.
“Although we were set up by republican ex-prisoners, we are open to everyone and have clients from Tigers Bay, Shore Road, Rathcoole, Mount Vernon and Shankill.
“We are part of the North Belfast Advice Partnership.”
As with so many organisations, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic brought about changes at Tar Isteach but the doors remained open throughout as the demand for their services and support increased.
“Immediately, we lost all our volunteers,” said Tommy.
“The pressure on our services increased. It was an extremely difficult time but we needed to keep working to support people and their needs.
“We kept our office open the whole time.
“We had to stop face-to-face meetings for a while but they resumed with strict protocols in place.
“If it wasn’t for the relationships that we have built up with statutory agencies over the years, we would never have got through the worst of the pandemic.
“We found people still preferred receiving advice face-to-face rather than on the telephone.”
Tar Isteach find their services as vital as ever in dealing with issues that the local community faces with benefits advice, housing and rising energy costs as crucial as they ever were.
“The people that use our services are used to speaking to a familiar face. They know we get things done. We do the hard work ourselves,” explained Agnes Fraser.
“We have a fantastic reputation. There is an eight-week wait for an appointment at the moment. We are opening earlier and closing later just to meet the demand.
“The issues in the community are ones that have always been there in terms of benefits, housing, bereavement and health.
“Rising energy costs and the increase in the cost of living are having a major impact on people.
“The reality of benefits is crippling people too. If you are over 25 and on benefits, you have £74.70 a week which isn’t going to heat a house or buy much food with that.
“The closing of post office accounts has also been massive. Many people have struggled to open up a bank account and don’t have the proper identification required. Many of our clients do not have access to a computer and we have tried to help them as best as we could.”
As for the future, the important work of Tar Isteach goes on, as does the uncertainty of where the next pot of funding is coming from for Tommy, Agnes and the team.
“Funding remains a major issue for us. We do not know where and when our next line of funding is going to come from,” added Tommy.
“There have been times over the years where we have been funded for three months at a time and even received nothing at times.
“As for the future, we will plough on as best as we can with what we have got.
“We do not have the funding to provide all the services that we wish we could such as family support and a home visit service.
“Working in the community sector has and always will be tough, but we are a good team here who are very experienced in what we do.”
Tar Isteach
244 Antrim Road
Belfast
BT15 2AR
Tel: 028 9074 6664
