Welcome to Novas Initiatives

Novas Initiatives is a 'not for profit' voluntary organisation registered under the Companies Acts hacing chartable status. We are registered as Arlington Novas Ireland Limited but we operate on a day-to-day basis as Novas Initiatives. Our Company Registeration Number is 330018 and our Revevue Charity Status Number is CHY 13390. We are also approved by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government as a housing association for the provision of social housing.

In eight years, Novas Initiatives has become one of the state's leading providers of services to adults and childrem who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Also we are pioneering unique serives for unaccompanied minors.

An outreach service was started out in 2002 and signalled our arrival. This services started in 2002 and signalled our arrival. This service was undertaken by the UK based charity Novas Ouvertures Group through the Limerick based Tír na Droichead. 'Street Audits' of people sleeping rough were carried out and proved to be enormously valuable. For the first time, the special needs, including short tem accommodation and support needs, of this very vulnerable group and the numbers of such people who were homeless were accurately assessed. This led to Tír na Droichead campaigning for appropriate short term accommodation and support services to meet the needs of this group.

By the end of 2002, we opened the country's first low threshold direct access emergency facility for rough sleepers, predominantly street drinkers, and welcomed men and women who found it hard to access existing services in the city due to their challenging behaviour, addiction and/or mental health. St. Patrick's Hill (five bed facility) was purchased as a move on facility for clients from Bridgeland, thus giving effect to a continuum of care service model. This marked the beginning of a few direction in the provision of homeless services in the region, the first steps towards a genuinely inclusive reposonse and the beginning of a robust and durable partnership with the relevant statutory aauthorities and other voluntary groups.