Meet Kenny, who is supported by Kare's Outreach and Supported Employment teams.
'My name's Kenny Delahunt and I live in Kildare. I work in the Public Appointments Service in Dublin doing admin – agendas for meetings, replying to emails and all that general stuff. I enjoy it. Sometimes I'm on the front desk, front of house. I like dealing with people, that interaction. I travel up and down to Dublin myself.
I did an internship in the Houses of the Oireachtas (OWL programme). I used to travel up five days a week on the train and bus. I'm on the train that long now I could drive it! The lads at Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail all know me now at this stage, they know when I'm coming.
Initially I was a bit apprehensive of it, I had never travelled up and down to Dublin myself before I started the internship. But no bother to me, I'd travel anywhere now! I like getting out myself.
I did travel training with Outreach in Kare. Danielle is my keyworker – god help her! She helps me with anything I need, particularly if I have a problem, need to go somewhere or want to do something. For example she helped me to get the wheelchair [for football] near the end. There was a lot of people involved in it because I had to raise money for that – I didn't have it in my back pocket! She helped me get it over the line. That's something I wanted to do myself and Kare facilitated that.
I like sport – anything but golf. I've gone to rugby matches, football matches, concerts and I go to festivals. I went to one festival in Punchestown a few years ago and a staff member came with me.
I'd love to go on the stage performing music. I do DJing on the side, one of the staff helps me with that. I studied music for three years in Maynooth University – all different types of music. I remember one day doing Irish traditional music, I had to go to the pub to do it. I got an A in it!
Maynooth was great for me, it made me come out of my shell. I did most of my study outside the classroom – I'm not being funny when I say that but it helped me develop socially. We had great craic.
The environment was great because you could get around the place. I also had people helping me with assignments and the lecturers were fairly accommodating as well.
At the end of the day, it's all about yourself. That's what one of the staff said to me one day. I used to ask them when I was in Maynooth, "Is it alright if I go here or there". He said, "it's not about me, it's about you".
And, pardon the pun, I took that and I ran with it.'