The Ireland Funds - Your Money at Work : Barnardos

A Mother’s Trust

Mary Roche, a project Coordinator at the centre in Tallaght shared another success story that illustrates how long term interaction with families can bring about changes in children’s lives

“A child was referred to our service by the Public Health Nurse back in 2005. The parents were happy for the child to attend however the child’s mother did not have any involvement with the service initially. The father engaged at a minimum level. We made regular home visits but we were never invited into the house and it was always the father who spoke with us. They did not avail of any of the parenting courses or supports that are offered to all parents of children attending our service.

After some time the child’s mother began to phone a staff member on a Friday afternoon. She called every Friday for almost two years. Ever Friday we answered the call and listened to her, sometimes she was speaking so quietly we could barely hear her.

Last year that same mother accepted an invite to join a parent’s support group. Having spent two years taking the phone calls and offering support she eventually found the strength and confidence to come in and start dealing with her own issues. She now gains support from other parents and engages in discussions around parenting. The child is benefiting from the direct service offered, and also gaining from the new-found confidence of her mother.

Thank You
Without the generosity of The Ireland Funds we would not be able to help children or their families. We are extremely grateful and invite The Ireland Funds' supporters to visit our projects so they can see our work first hand and understand fully what we do and why we do it.”

Barnardos - Building Hope, Building Futures

All across Ireland there are untold stories of struggle. Stories of children born into families who are finding it hard to cope: families struggling with addiction and illness or who are on the margins of Ireland’s booming economy. These are people whom the Celtic Tiger has passed by and for whom life is a daily struggle.

• One need not travel far from Dublin to see these children who are affected by poverty. Against a backdrop of beautiful rolling hills are housing estates such as Knockmore in West Tallaght, where some homes still have no central heating and families are struggling to break out of a cycle of second and third generations of longterm unemployment.

• These are the people that Barnardos works with, day in and day out, to build hope and brighter futures and to end the cycle of poverty.

The Ireland Funds spent the day in West Tallaght at the Millbrook Health Centre where Barnardos operates a day care serving children from the area. Currently the location requires many of the families to travel by bus several miles from where they live but a plan is underway to open a new centre in September 2009 which will be in the heart of the Knockmore neighborhood they serve.

We asked Ruth Guy, Barnardos Director of Fundraising and Marketing, to share with our supporters how the organisation came about, how they advocate for Ireland’s children, and how a child who hotwires cars can one day become an engineer. See Mark's Story >

How Barnardos Serves Ireland's Children
The organisation operates a range of services all focused on helping children make the most of their lives, regardless of what they are up against. There are over 30 Barnardos centres across the country providing programmes for children, be that a pre-school, after-schools support and parenting support—all aimed at supporting a child reach their full potential.

Barnardos does not work in isolation. Services are about supporting the whole family and community around the child that has come for help. A child who has been told over and over again that they can’t amount to anything or a parent who feels isolated and hopeless isn’t going to be “fixed” overnight. It takes dedication and hard work from Barnardos and everyone around to make sure that each child’s future can look a little brighter.

A key part of the work is supporting children and parents in accessing education which is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. If we can help build structures around education and ensure that a child stays in the education system we can make a real and lasting impact for each child’s ability to succeed in life.

All our work from our early years programmes through to our youth action and teenage mothers groups are focused on access to education and on intervening early.

International research shows that early intervention represents a significant savings for society. By supporting families early on in the nurturing of their children’s education, society can later avoid the funding of prisons or the damage to children who may become marginalised adults.

Speaking out for children
In addition to providing our direct services to children and families, Barnardos advocates on behalf of all children in Ireland. Based on the daily experience in our services, as well as research, Barnardos is recognised as a leading commentator and advocate for children in Ireland. By raising public and political awareness of the issues facing children, Barnardos aims to make Ireland the best place in the world to be a child. Our campaigns focus on key issues facing children in Ireland today such as educational disadvantage, poverty, child protection, and the impact of alcohol abuse on children.

How Barnardos gets to do its work every day
Barnardos works in close partnership with local schools, the health service and other service providers. In 2007 Barnardos will spend over €23 million delivering services to children and their families across our 30 centres nationwide. This is partly funded by the government but we rely heavily on private income through fundraising to support our services.

Without the generosity of the donors who support us we would not be able to help children like Mark. We are extremely grateful to them and we encourage donors to visit our projects to see the work first hand to understand fully what it is we do and why we do it. There are over 110,000 children living in consistent poverty in Ireland and they all need our support. We don’t ever give up and we want to make sure Ireland is the best place in the world to be a child.

The Impact of Your Investment
The Ireland Funds have granted over $28,000 to advance the work of Barnardos.

Mark's Story
This is a true story and the name has been changed to protect the child’s privacy.

Mark came to Barnardos service in Tallaght through a referral from his school after repeated involvement with the police.

Mark was a bright 10 year old child but had been missing school and had taken to hanging around the roads of his estate and playing with older kids. By the time we met Mark he had been in trouble with the law twice for stealing cars, hot-wiring them and joyriding around his estate. Mark had no interest in school and was on a downward spiral already at a young age. His Mum was at a loss as to how to control him and he was having a very negative influence on his younger brother and sister.

Mark came to Barnardos based in the estate where he lived. He came in the morning for breakfast, went to school, and returned after school where he would again have something to eat, do his homework and then get a chance to play in a safe space. This gave him some structure and ensured his attendance at school as the Barnardos case worker and his teacher would speak daily.

From working with Mark, his case worker began to talk to him about his behaviour—hotwiring cars and joyriding and asked him why he did it. Mark said it was because he liked working on engines and the older boys he was hanging around with were into stealing and joyriding so he ‘kinda just did it’. It was suggested to Mark then that if he was so interested in car engines, he might think of becoming a mechanic—a simple suggestion but it was encouragement Mark had never heard before.

He became interested in the possibility of doing that and his case worker explained to him that he would need some qualifications to train as a mechanic, and he would have to stay in school if the dream was to become a reality. He worked harder at school. It soon became evident that Mark was exceptionally talented at math. He finished 6th class and in September 2005 transferred to his local secondary school, something he would never have considered doing 12 months earlier.

His math ability flourished in secondary school. Mark’s Barnardos case worker suggested that whilst a mechanic was a great job and he should also consider engineering. He was introduced to another Ireland Funds supported project—the Trinity Access programme—which was established to enable children from disadvantaged communities to gain access to third-level-education. Mark is now working hard in secondary school to ensure he makes the grades necessary to study engineering in Trinity.

Amazingly, Mark now makes sure his younger brother and sister attend school everyday and do their homework every evening. He has now become an incredibly positive role model for his younger siblings and has not been in trouble with the police since he started to focus on his schooling.

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About Barnardos

Barnardos, Ireland’s leading children’s charity, has worked in Ireland since the early 1960s with the aim of supporting the children and families who are struggling with a lack of education, with lack of opportunities, grinding poverty and with crises like a bereavement or violence. The contrast of the opportunities that the children Barnardos meets have, compared with the rest of society is stark.

Many do not realise that one child in nine in Ireland grows up in poverty. That means that their families not only have a very low income—they also lack basic needs such as a warm meal, a strong pair of shoes in the winter or a home with heat or hot water.

This poverty robs children of their potential and their futures. Barnardos provides practical and intensive support for these children and their families. The core of all the services and supports offered by Barnardos is to first see what the need of the child or young person is and then develop a response to the individual child’s need.