For the first time in Ireland, there is a project specifically dedicated to addressing the needs of children and young people living with domestic violence and family conflict.
Mayo Children's Initiative (MCI ), which provides prevention and early intervention programmes and services for children, was launched by Barnardos Chief Executive Fergus Finlay in Ballyheane. Over the coming year, the project will spread throughout the county of Mayo.
Helen Mortimer, Manager of MCI, said that when children talk about the anxiety, fear and dread they endure when violence is part of their lives it belies any notion that it goes unnoticed or that mothers can protect their children from its impact.
“If we are to provide children with the strategies to keep themselves safe, or to help them cope with the violence they are living with, we must first listen to them,” she said. “What we are doing here in Mayo is vital because we are putting children first. Up to now they have been supported in domestic violence services which are set up for women.”
The development and design of the new service is grounded in the findings and recommendations of a major research study which showed that children are not passive bystanders when there is violence at home. The study, Listen to Me, was carried out by the Children's Research Centre, Trinity College in 2006 for Mayo Women's Support Services.
In 2008, 3,269 children and 1,947 women were admitted to refugees nationwide. In Mayo, over 100 children and 200 women accessed domestic violence supports last year.
Fergus Finlay said that children who witnessed abuse had the same emotional and behavioural responses as they would if they were the direct target of that abuse.
MCI is funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The initiative has already been working in Erris where it is delivering the Protective Behaviours Programme which is a practical down-to-earth approach to personal safety and well-being.
Work is now beginning in Castlebar where the education and awareness raising work will be supported by intensive therapeutic work with children and families living with domestic violence.
