WHILE CHRISTMAS IS a time for happiness and joy for many, for others it is when they feel the most isolated.

This is true for Ireland’s homeless community.

One Dublin initiative aims to help tackle this issue by getting people having a meal out during the festive season to make a small donation.

StreetSmart works by asking diners to add €2 on to the cost of their bill in a number of Dublin restaurants, money that is then donated to local charities.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, founder Brian Cuddy said:

This initiative gives restaurants the chance to help tackle the one issue that probably affects their staff and customers the most at the moment – homelessness.

The group says that its programme works off of a model of “acting together, and acting locally”.

The money raised goes to two of Ireland’s most prominent homeless charities, Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust.

Last year it raised close to €8,000 and projects that it will far surpass that this time around.

This year the organisation has almost doubled the number of restaurants that it is operating in and has changed to making the donation work on an opt-out system.

It has been running since the start of November and could potentially continue into January.

While the funds from the Dublin StreetSmart project will be going towards work within Ireland, other versions of the same scheme operate in countries including South Africa, Australia and the United States.

A full list of restaurants participating in the initiative can be found here. 

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Also: Homeless man appeals for money from his mother’s €1.5m trust fund