Listen to our children – new project on domestic violence launched

Listen to our children – new project on domestic violence


Áine Ryan

The first project in Ireland to specifically deal with children and youth living with domestic violence and conflict was launched last week in the Ballyheane Community Centre. Speaking at the launch of the Mayo Children’s Initiative (MCI), Ms Helen Mortimer, manager, observed that for the first time ‘children have been put centre stage’ in a service that to date mainly focussed on adult female victims.
“Children are not passive victims or silent witnesses. They have their own coping strategies and their own perspectives on what happens to them. Each child reacts as an individual,” Helen Mortimer said
She continued: “Children rely on their family for safety and protection. It is very traumatic for children to see and feel the tension, terror and aggression that domestic violence creates. Children experience domestic violence differently from adults. They do not have an adult understanding of domestic violence. They often blame themselves for what is happening.” “They worry that the violence will cause the death of their mother and they often try to protect their mother and their siblings from the violence,” she added.
The MCI is set be implemented on an incremental basis throughout the county. As a large rural and isolated area, with strong community ties, Erris was chosen as the first location for its roll-out.
Crucially the project includes a Protective Behaviour Programme, already being delivered at Inver National School. This programme, founded in the US in 1978, is underpinned by the empowering of children towards protecting their rights through self-belief.
Guest speaker, Fergus Finlay remarked that, while he had attended dozens of functions on children and dozens of functions on domestic violence over the last five years, he had never been at one ‘where children were so directly connected to domestic violence’.
Poignantly, he recalled the innocent words of a young child attending a Barnados service: “If my mum was a better mum, my dad would not have to hit her.”
“It is not at all unusual for children to believe that the victim has provoked the situation,” Fergus Finlay said.
He praised the MCI and its leadership potential to be adopted throughout the country, as well as the efficacy and discernment of its chief funding source, Atlantic Philanthropies.
“An initiative that directly addresses the needs of children is profoundly important. This goes further than creating huge public interest. Atlantic Philanthropies always demands results. Its only interest is in finding something that works and making it spread,” Mr Finaly also said.
He continued: “Atlantic Philanthropies makes a real difference. There is a real potential to develop a set of interventions here that will have an all-Ireland effect. This is a real exercise in leadership and I look forward with keen interest to how this project proceeds, and I’m particularly interested in the Protective Behaviours Programme being brought in from the US.”
Earlier, Ms Mortimer also acknowledged the administrator of the project, the St Vincent de Paul Society, which has provided a town centre premises in Castlebar.

Children are at risk when
• Conflict is frequent and intense
• Disputes are full of aggression
• Partners treat each other with quiet contempt
• One partner withdraws during argument
• The child is the subject of disagreements

Contact
Mayo Children’s Initiative (MCI)
The Project Team: Helen Mortimer (Manager), Ann Sweeney (Administrator), Claire Forrestal (Project Worker).
tel: 094 9286407 or 097 20828
www.mayochildrensinitiative.com