More men than ever contacting resource centres

More men than ever before have accessed services at family resource centres around the country, but counselling hours have been reduced due to cutbacks.

The Family Resource Centre National Forum met in Dublin yesterday to publish its annual report which showed an increased demand for services at a time when funding has been reduced.

Chairperson Claire Dineen said family resource centres needed to keep working in as many communities as possible to ensure no family in need fell through the cracks.

Speaking at the publication of the report, which was launched by Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, Ms Dineen said more men and more teenagers were engaging with centres — the men because of growing employment and a need to use their skills; young people to access clubs that are an alternative to pubs.

Many of the men becoming involved with family resource centre projects do so via the Men’s Shed programme, working on community projects, renovating buildings, or overhauling old cars.

Ms Dineen said: “It gets them out of the house and gives them a pride in something they are good at.”

Other initiatives include “upcycling” of clothes, with people having old clothes mended, and the donation of school uniforms in local areas to ease the financial burden on parents.

Community savings schemes have also increased, with people saving as little as €3 a week for occasions such as First Communions. Some of those saving are as young as four.

Funding is an issue, with counselling — often for issues of separation and divorce but increasingly due to money worries and mental health — being cut back due to a lack of finance to pay professional counsellors.

“Funding was cut back by 5% this year and we are looking for the minister to review the cuts,” Ms Dineen said.

The shortfall in counselling hours has been met by using trainee and student counsellors in some cases, but Sharon Foley, the chairperson of the Family Support Agency which co-ordinates services with the family resource centre, said: “We acknowledge the cuts have been tough.”

Ms Fitzgerald said she wanted the centres to continue to receive “substantial funding”: “We are trying to keep them [cuts] to a minimum on frontline services.”

She said youth cafés were complementing the work of family resource centres and more would open, and the minister said she wanted to see more inter-agency co-operation around the country, as well.

Reacting to figures showing 10% of Irish children have seen pornography or other harmful material on the internet, Ms Fitzgerald said there were obligations on internet providers.

“We know it’s a difficult area but I have had discussions with Scotland Yard and they are very concerned about material that young people would be putting up online themselves,” she said.

FRC data

Family resource centres: The figures.

* 106 centres around the country.

* 5,025 people received counselling last year — down 562.

* 223,077 people attended the FRC to access information on services.

* 157,402 queries dealt with by FRC directly.

* 65,675 referred elsewhere.

* 28 volunteers on average in each centre.

* 305 new community groups formed directly by FRCs.

* 17,870 people completed education courses.