Hope springs

ABANDONED washing machines, broken push-chairs and baby seats were heaped up around the back garden at 16 Cushing Road.

And then there was the detritus from the endless late-night drinking: cans, swathes of scorched earth, broken bottles and shards of glass.

If you were on the hunt for drugs in Farranree, the abandoned garden on a hill overlooking Cork city centre was always a sure bet.

But five years later, everything has changed. The former wasteland is a setting where young children gather when they want to chill out or just play on the grass. It’s “their quiet place”, according to Ger Phillips, project leader with Springboard family support centre.

“Sometimes, the kids tell us they want to have a meeting among themselves and they’ll head out to the wigwam and have a chat — and then come back and tell us what they think we need to do about something. It really is nice to see,” says Phillips.

Five years ago, as part of the European Capital of Culture 2005, Springboard enlisted the help of local parents and children to create a green space for residents with lawns, a mural, patio, garden seats and the much-loved living willow wigwam.

Springboard had only moved into Farranree a year beforehand and parents were still viewing the project with suspicion; wary of social services taking root in the community. Springboard is, however, anything but that. The project is all about helping children and families at times of high risk so that children avoid getting into trouble with Gardaí or ending up in the care system. If placing a child in care is the end of the line, family support is the beginning of the continuum. It’s the early intervention that allows struggling parents to overcome the crisis induced by domestic abuse, addiction problems, child behavioural problems and learning disability.

Gutting and rebuilding 16 Cushing Road’s ‘garden’ was no easy task. Slowly, more and more locals got interested in what the project was doing and offered to give a hand. Ger Philips has little doubt that the practical aspect of the project, with its clear benefits to the community, helped alleviate suspicion surrounding the new service.

One afternoon a week, the Springboard people carrier vehicle whizzes around Knocknaheeny collecting up to seven boys aged 2-5 whose speech and language development is delayed. The people carrier was bought so parents’ often chaotic lives wouldn’t impede children attending group sessions.

“The speech group began after we were talking to a community welfare officer (CWO) and she mentioned that there was a cluster of kids with speech problems. Some of the kids were getting speech therapy while others were on waiting lists and we decided it would be a good idea to bring them over so that we could do a programme with them in between the other sessions. We got in a speech therapist for an hour a week ourselves. Many of these kids would have been isolated in the community while others had parents with learning difficulties who weren’t able to read the letters coming in from the HSE on the language. The kids were missing out socially and in terms of intervention. Our involvement has seen big improvements. That’s the kind of thing we do. It’s a mixture of the practical and the therapeutic,” says Philips.

When you walk up to the northside’s second Springboard centre opposite St Mary’s On the Hill Church, just how central the service is immediately hits you. It’s directly opposite the local SuperValu at the heart of the Knocknaheeny community.

“Without doubt, our most effective work is done on the street. We might just be popping over to the shop to get milk and we might notice a former service user who might be looking a bit down. We’ll go over and have a chat and if yes, they are depressed or not coping, we can organise counselling and support services within days. We can bring an immediate response by being part of the community. In many ways, we are trying to reinvigorate those old-time values — meitheal, the way neighbours used to share around food with other neighbours when times were tough. We keep an eye out for people.”

Springboard has a mini sportshall within the complex it shares with the Youthlink service. A group of boys, referred to the service due to ADHD symptoms and behavioural problems, are screeching with laughter. Aged seven to 12 and dressed in sumo wrestling suits, they are literally bouncing off one another. The week previous, Springboard had representatives from Munster Rugby teaching them rugby skills. Regular rugby lessons are going down a treat with the kids and a trip to Thomond Park is on the cards. Sports and social skills lessons are central to Springboard’s therapeutic approach with these children. A child psychologist also works with them. Then there’s yoga, dance classes, art and craft work — the often angry and bewildered children who attend the service also have access to an art therapist. The walls of the art room are covered with collages, sketches and bright paintings. Traveller children have built a rather remarkable papier maché lifesize horse which stands in the middle of the room.

Springboard isn’t all about children though. It’s about “providing opportunities” for growth and development for parents and children, says Phillips. “A huge amount is about teaching the children and parents strategies to deal with stress — whether it’s abuse, learning difficulties or mental health problems.” In association with the Ballincollig-based Social Health Education Project (SHEP), they offer low-cost counselling, stress reduction and personal development courses. Group and individual parenting courses are a mainstay of the Knocknaheeny and Farranree centres.

“As I said before, it’s a mixture of the practical and the therapeutic. There are a lot of people out there with literacy problems and learning difficulties and people regularly come over to us [for] help in reading letters from the HSE and the Department of Social and Family Affairs. They might also want us to sit in at meetings with teachers or to help with housing problems. We are there for practical help if things are going wrong, we will put people in contact with the right services if we can’t bring the services in here ourselves. It works both ways, with the schools, social workers and community welfare officers putting us in contact with children that they think we could help. Family support at a key time makes a huge difference to a child,” Phillips explains.

Senior social workers in the child protection sector in North Lee place enormous value on Springboard and such family support services — “getting to the children before problems spiral out of control”.

Springboard has four project workers, working under leader, Ger Phillips. From backgrounds in community care, counselling and social services, he says “the mix is great”. When referrals are made to the services, the case is discussed in a team meeting before the child or parent is allocated a project worker.

“We then sit down with the parents and child and ask what their needs are. We ask people what would they see as a solution as people generally know the answers and it works better when their needs are being met,” says Philips. At present, the service is working with 70 families, including a number of children with autism.

The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) has long called for an increase in such family support services across communities. Many fear that existing services could suffer severe setbacks in the 2011 post-bailout budget.

Springboard could have been in big trouble because of the HSE staffing embargo, with three staff out on career breaks and maternity leave in the past year, but childcare services have moved staff over to the facility. Students of psychology and social science are also doing volunteer sessional work at the facility to plug holes. “We have no choice but to think outside the box,” they say.

Up to 80% of people who use the service remain with them for six to 12 months before moving into mainstream youth services. These figures, say Phillips, are an illustration of the success of the model.

As a rule of thumb, new cases are seen within a fortnight and a series of home visits are made immediately after the child/parent programme begins.

Social workers across Cork city regularly note the increase in recent years in the number of children whose parents have learning difficulties — and who don’t have a strong family support network to fall back on.

“Through addiction, isolation and serious mental health issues, there are many parents who can’t look after themselves never mind their children. We try to offer support to them so they can get over their impediments.”

Ionad na Daoine, another local support group, provides mentoring services to Springboard clients struggling with parenting. “These women, all mothers themselves, visit the women in the home and offer real help with how to clean, cook and run a home.”

Family support can be about the big things — like helping a child with bereavement, suicide, its parents’ addiction, a parental stint in prison or relationship breakdown. It also comes into its own in building parental self esteem around the smaller things.

“We’ve had public health nurses in to talk to parents about combating head lice. Parents with literacy problems and learning disabilities haven’t been able to understand the literature handed out and the nurses can explain face-to-face the importance of regular application and the like. Professionals need to be much more aware than they are about how they impart information to people, especially vulnerable people.”