Testimonials

The Southern Traveller Health Network (STHN) is a network of five Traveller projects in Cork and Kerry.  The STHN has been meeting, twice monthly, at the Gilbert Centre for the last five years.  We have always found the staff at the centre extremely welcoming and friendly and nothing is ever an inconvenience or too much trouble.  The centre is bright and comfortable and very well equipped to meet the needs of trainers and facilitators.  For many of the Traveller women attending the STHN this may be there first time meeting in a group setting outside their local Traveller groups.  The women have always commented on how welcome they feel at the centre and that it is a lovely setting for group work. It is an excellent venue for groups to meet and participate in training, we couldn’t recommend The Gilbert Centre highly enough.

Since August 2015 the Gilbert Centre in Mallow has hosted outreach clinics from the Advance Centre in East Grinstead, UK.  Disabled children have abnormal breathing. When this is addressed they can begin to improve physically, neurologically and psychologically.  The Scotson Technique (TST) is a therapy which helps children to breathe normally.  As Linda Scotson reports on the Advance Centre website (www.advancecentres.com) “Advance is now delighted to be visiting Mallow 3 times a year to evaluate children and teach TST to families. We have been able to use The Gilbert Centre, which is a beautiful purpose built venue for disabled people with spacious rooms, and a roof garden. The Mallow project has gone so well, Linda has decided to ask other Advance parents if they would like to find venues for TST around the UK.”

Located in the centre of Mallow, the Gilbert Centre is easy to find and there is parking available for users of the centre.  Mallow is located at the crossroads of Munster benefitting from the best mainline rail service in Ireland as all Dublin-Cork trains and Dublin – Tralee trains stop in Mallow.  A clinic in the Gilbert Centre is ideally placed to serve a national client group.  Mallow hosts a hotel and is well provided with B&B facilities.

The Gilbert Centre in Mallow is a wonderful welcoming clean bright attractive facility.  Anyone would like to visit it.  The staff are friendly and helpful, going out of their way to assist.  Their generosity and willingness to facilitate the Advance Centre made possible the holding of outreach clinics in Ireland.   The entire building is wheelchair accessible with wide corridors, doors, lift and ample assisted toilet and bathroom provision.  The building includes large windows so each room is light and airy.  The ground floor restaurant has floor to ceiling windows providing a great view of the outdoors.  The food provided is wholesome, fresh and reasonably priced.  I have no hesitation in recommending the Gilbert Centre as a venue for meetings, clinics or small conferences.

I booked a room in the Gilbert Centre to conduct a number of staff training days. The facilities provided were of the highest standard and the management and staff could not have been more helpful in ensuring that all our requirements were met. The Centre proved to be an ideal venue for us due to its central location, the range of rooms available, the private car park and in house restaurant. I have no hesitation in recommending the Centre as an excellent location to book for meetings, training or other similar activities.

The Gilbert Centre has become an extension to Bridhaven in relation to providing state of the art meeting and training room facilities, all within a short distance from our Nursing Home. The onsite catering at the Gilbert Centre has also proven to be a big hit for those requiring refreshments during a full days training session. I am delighted to work in partnership with the team at the Gilbert Centre who are both flexible and professional in their approach to supporting local businesses.

“Friendship feels welcomed.”

“I like the Gilbert Centre because I make new friends. I like doing activities like Arts and Crafts.”

“I love coming here everyday. I have the best friends.”

“I like the Gilbert Centre because the staff are very helpful and I get my friends from upstairs in the RT and downstairs in the Day Service. I like going to Music every Monday.”

Following a very significant fire at the Patrician Academy secondary school, the Gilbert Centre accommodated 3 class groups from September 2016 to May 2018. From the outset the management and staff endeavoured to accommodate us in every way to meet our needs. The Centre proved to be an ideal venue for us due to its proximity to the school. The staff were most professional in all their dealings with us and were always polite, friendly and helpful. The rooms provided were very suitable and provided students with a bright, clean and comfortable learning environment. Students were so happy at the Centre that they asked if they could continue to be taught there even when temporary facilities were provided at the school!

The flexibility of staff and their caring attitude is a hallmark of the service provided at the Centre. They successfully build relationships with their clients. Their generosity in going above and beyond what is required impressed us greatly. Each year we were there, they organized an end of year barbecue for students and provided wonderful food. They also facilitated us in hosting a number of guest speakers, often at short notice.

The Patrician Academy will forever be grateful to the management and staff of the Gilbert Centre for the warm welcome extended to us in our hour of need. It is truly a very valuable community resource which I have no hesitation in recommending.

The Gilbert Centre is a home away from home for our client group. There is always a friendly face, or a chat to see how we are doing, and they are a fantastic support to our service users. The building is beautiful with wonderful facilities but it’s the atmosphere that they create that makes it such a wonderful place to work, with such lovely groups and lovely people, it’s a pleasure to be part of the Gilbert Centre family.