People affected by homelessness to give tours with non-profit, Secret Street Tours

Posted on: 03 December 2018

A new non-profit, social enterprise—Secret Street Tours—officially launches today with the goal of empowering and supporting people affected by homelessness to take steps towards independent living.

Secret Street Tours trains and employs homeless people to deliver walking tours in Dublin, while developing their confidence and providing key transferable skills to help them gain long-term employment, pursue education or training initiatives, and secure safe and reliable housing.

Secret Street Tours offers a new way to discover the streets of Dublin through the eyes and experiences of someone who has been affected by homelessness. Unique, friendly and powerful tours are developed in partnership with guides, who share their personal stories while exploring the cultural and historic landmarks of their local areas. Customers are thus given a unique channel through which they can engage with one of Dublin’s (and Ireland’s) most pressing social challenges. Nearly 10,000 people were using state-funded emergency accommodation as of September 2018, while over 120,000 people are currently on the waiting list for social housing in Ireland.

Initially, Secret Street Tours will offer one walking tour through the Liberties area in Dublin’s southwest inner city. With a duration of approximately 90 minutes, the tour will weave from the Garda Siochana Memorial Gardens to St Patrick’s Tower and will be delivered by co-founder Derek McGuire, a tour guide who has lived in the area his whole life, and who will provide unique insights into the rich history of the area, its folklore and hidden gems.

Derek will also share his stories of growing up in the Liberties, as well as his experiences of homelessness, discussing what helped him through his lowest points, and outlining his hopes for the future (a degree at an art college). In time, other tour guides will offer more tours across Dublin.

Founder of Secret Street Tours and recent Trinity College Dublin graduate, Tom Austin, was inspired to develop the social enterprise after experiencing a similar walking tours in Vienna. He has since been helped by other European Homeless Walking tours organisations, such as Unseen Tours, Invisible Cities and Mystreets. He approached his co-founders, Pierce Dargan and Gareth Downey, to help make Secret Street Tours a reality and partnered with Dublin Simon Community, who have provided incredible holistic support for the guides.

The newly launched enterprise also received support via LaunchBox 2018, the hugely successful student accelerator run by Tangent, Trinity’s Ideas Workspace.

Tom Austin said:

The idea behind the tours is that they provide a unique way for our guides to take back control of the narrative around homelessness, while offering customers an accessible and friendly channel to engage with this critical social issue. Everything we do is in partnership with our guides and our focus is to empower them to share their stories, gain new skills and confidence, and ultimately take the next steps in their journeys.

It’s been an inspiration working with Derek–our first tour guide and co-founder. He has worked tirelessly to create a unique walking tour experience of a neighbourhood to which he is deeply connected. He’s now also focusing on growing Secret Street Tours and giving a voice to the homeless community.

Anyone interested in booking the Liberties Tour (groups of up to 10 people) should contact Secret Street Tours at: https://www.secretstreettours.org/contact-us/. The cost is €10 per person, with all money received providing an income for the tour guides, helping them save towards their unique goals for the future and enabling Secret Street Tours to scale and train more guides.