What does Barnardos do about these issues?

Homelessness

Barnardos puts the public spotlight on impact of homelessness on children and advocates for long-term solutions to homelessness.  We add our voice to other organisations working directly with homeless families calling for more immediate action to end this crisis. Barnardos is also a member of the Irish Coalition to End Youth Homelessness.

The first action of this campaign is the petition to limit the amount of time a family spends in emergency accommodation.

Our services provide:

Emotional supports

  • We provide stability amidst the chaos and uncertainty of homelessness
  • Offers emotional support for parents struggling to cope with the situation and their feelings of guilt, inadequacy and helplessness.

Practical supports

  • Barnardos offers practical support for parents in terms of supporting their parenting capacity e.g. how to instil routine / normality
  • We provide breakfasts and lunches for children in our services - we are making sure that the children are getting fruit and vegetables
  • We provide space and places to play and learn in our services

Barnardos also works locally with other agencies to support families made homeless.

Join the campaign

Neglect

Barnardos advocates for widespread availability of family support services across the country.

Our services provide:

Family Support

25 services across 11 counties working with families facing the following challenges:

  • Parental separation
  • Children exposed to trauma
  • Homelessness
  • Bereavement / loss
  • Domestic violence
  • Parental substance abuse
  • Parent-child bonding and attachment
  • Parental mental health
  • Children leaving state care
  • Anxiety in very young children

Individual One - One Targeted Intervention

This work is targeted towards children dealing with challenging experiences that are likely to impact on their development. Experiences such as parental addiction, domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse.

This one-to-one support is delivered on a weekly basis.

Joint Child-Parent Work

Tailored intervention working with parents and children in a therapeutic session together.

Barnardos approach to this work draws on evidence from attachment theory and child development.

This combined support is delivered on a weekly basis.

Early Years

Early Years Programme

This is a daily programme for children aged 2-3 years.

The focus is on supporting children to meet their developmental milestones, develop language, social skills, sharing, taking turns and resolving conflicts.

Tús Maith Pre-School Programme

This is a daily programme for children aged 3-5 years.

The focus is on social, emotional, language, phonological and literacy skills in preparation for transition to primary school.

Parents Group

This is a peer support group to increase parental understanding of their children’s needs, child development and behaviour.

Individual Parent & Child Work

This is tailored therapeutic work in response to assessed needs with either the child or the parent.

Barnardos works to  highlight the adverse impact on children of the lack of access to services. We advocate for equal access by all children to all essential services. We regularly monitor and campaign on the length of health service waiting lists for children. Barnardos has long advocated for more funding for education services to ensure that cost is never a barrier to a child’s education

Our services provide:

We advocate and champion children’ rights at local level through engaging with stakeholders e.g. schools, Tusla, CYPSCs, Local authorities etc.

Practical supports

  • Barnardos offers practical support for parents to support their parenting capacity e.g. how to instil routine / normality
  • We offer budgeting advice to families and parents that we work with
  • We provide breakfasts and lunches for children in our services - we are making sure that the children are getting fruit and vegetables
  • We provide space and places to play and learn in our services

You can help us continue to support children lost to homelessness, poverty & neglect by making a donation today.

Poverty

Barnardos works to  highlight the adverse impact on children of the lack of access to services. We advocate for equal access by all children to all essential services. We regularly monitor and campaign on the length of health service waiting lists for children. Barnardos has long advocated for more funding for education services to ensure that cost is never a barrier to a child’s education

Our services provide:

We advocate and champion children’ rights at local level through engaging with stakeholders e.g. schools, Tusla, CYPSCs, Local authorities etc.

Practical supports

  • Barnardos offers practical support for parents to support their parenting capacity e.g. how to instil routine / normality
  • We offer budgeting advice to families and parents that we work with
  • We provide breakfasts and lunches for children in our services - we are making sure that the children are getting fruit and vegetables
  • We provide space and places to play and learn in our services

You can help us continue to support children lost to homelessness, poverty & neglect by making a donation today.