Triest Press – Sprinkling the fairy dust to prepare our Global Rossie Strategy

When we set out on this journey to prepare a Roscommon Diaspora Strategy, we felt that we, in Roscommon, wanted to do things a little differently. Firstly, we met with people, not on a weekday in a working environment, but rather over breakfast on the morning of a crucial league match.

We invited people from communities across the county, we invited people who had shown prowess on the field of play, those who had toiled for hours over family trees, those who has studied the history and heritage of our county and those who are known simply as lovers of all things Roscommon.

We also wanted to look at our audience. Who are the “Diaspora”? Do people identify as the diaspora? The response was no. But, people do identify as a Rossie. So the term diaspora was removed and the Global Rossie Family emerged as being more relevant to our people.

We then set out to produce a Strategy – but not in a typical annual report format. We wanted something different. Triest Press were our partners in searching for a format that would include all we had researched, heard and planned, but which would be something that the Global Rossie Family all over the world would want to have a copy of in their house and for their relatives around the world.

From here, Roscommon Bound was created. It is a book which clearly honours our past, but which also values our future – our Roscommon students who are depicted on the front cover holding their Roscommon passport. A link that they can bring with them wherever they many travel but which will always remind them of where they have come from and where they are always valued.

Triest Press is a thriving social enterprise, based in Roscommon Town, providing a professional digital print and design service, coupled with meaningful employment for people with intellectual disability. They offer bespoke products with a personal touch; all products are hand finished using traditional methods that our finishing staff are fully trained and skilled in.

Successfully operating for over 30 years, Triest Press has evolved into a unique and vibrant social enterprise that encompasses much more than your traditional business model. They are big on social inclusion and focusing on abilities rather than disabilities.

They up-skill and train their employees in much more than the craft of traditional print finishing, such as; customer service and basic digital skills training etc… They have created a workplace that provides the necessary tools and skills that are transferable within their personal lives and will equip the individual so that they are prepared for the competitive labour market if they wish to move on.

Also, the hand finishing skills learned in print finishing such as, stitching, creasing, collating and binding; help with hand eye coordination which in turn can improve other areas of one’s motor skills.

In 1987, the Initial need for the service was established based on the fact that there was little if any employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Roscommon and there was an expressed need by the people themselves to engage in employment and training to progress their own goals.

According to The Economic and Social Research Institute, fewer than a third of working-age people with disabilities in Ireland are employed. In 2017’s CSO National Household Survey 42% of adults with disabilities had no more than the equivalent of a Junior Certificate (aged 14/15) level of education. The CSO’s National Household Survey found that people with a disability were more likely to live alone and 42% lived in jobless households so were at a high risk of poverty. It also found that people with disabilities were four times less likely to enter the workforce than people without a disability, and more likely to leave it. Isolation, poverty and feelings of discrimination are all possible factors in a person’s disengagement within the labour market.   (Reference: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/fewer-than-33-of-working-age-people-with-disabilities-employed-1.3012243)

When faced with preconceived opinions of how a person with ID may perform in the workplace, it can be difficult for many individuals with ID to secure and retain employment in the competitive labour market. In Triest Press, by focusing on traditional hand-finishing skills, they choose their product range with their employee’s abilities in mind.

Their mission is to continue to address the issue of meaningful employment opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities as well as offer a high standard, professional print and design service.

At Triest Press they foster learning, inclusion, creativity, growth and self-confidence.   We hope you will be as impressed by the obvious attention to detail and passion that was put into producing Roscommon Bound.