Recession hits Irish immigration centers in New York

Donations are down as need for services rise

“That money is down too because the city has had to cutback this year,” O’Dwyer said.

Both centers rely considerably on private donations from the community and fundraisers.

“We hold two fundraisers a year to make up the rest of the money we are down from grants, but it’s also down considerably this year,” said O’Dwyer.

The Aisling Center, which also receives funding from the New York State Office of Aging, and Child and Family Services and from the City of Yonkers, is down between 15% and 20% from last year. 

"This year, we are more dependent than ever on income raised from program and class income and from fundraising events. The turnout at J.P. Clarke's (a bar in Yonkers) golf outing, of 120 players, this past Monday and the projected income raised, which is donated to the Aisling Center each year, are both testimony of the wonderful support we receive from the local Irish community here in New York,” said Doherty.

O’Dwyer said the Emerald Isle has stepped up its private fundraising efforts by going out into the community and inviting new donors to support the center.

“We are making the case to people that the first priority for the community now has got to be the immigration centers, take care of your own first and we are hopeful that will pay dividends,” he said.

Looking ahead, O’Dwyer said the center is enormously grateful to the Irish government for the consistent funding over the past number of years. But he is apprehensive about the future knowing that there are considerable cutbacks needed to be made in Ireland also.

“We do not look forward to this next year with any sort of optimism. It’s going to be a tough slog,” said O’Dwyer.

“It’s a tough slog in a time when if ever we are needed it’s now. There are people being deported and a lot of different people coming to us with different problems. It’s enormously challenging, more than any other time in the 20 year history of the center and in a time when we are scratching for funding.”

Meanwhile, the Irish Minister for Education and Services Batt O’Keefe, announced last week that the Irish Government plans to add an additional ***20 million to the George Mitchell Scholarship Fund, run through the U.S.-Ireland Alliance, over the next number of years to secure the future of the program.

The program awards a number of U.S. students each year (105 since 1999) with a scholarship to study at a university in Ireland.

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Nster.com