THE NUMBER OF visits to 106 Family Resource Centres (FRC) has increased by 50% over a three year period.
FRCs are located primarily in disadvantaged areas throughout Ireland, and work to provide early-intervention child and family supports. Services range from assistance with form-filling to family mediation. The centres are now under the auspices of the Child and Family Agency, Tusla.
Increased demand
In 2013, FRCs had a total of 290,793 visitor contacts, compared to 193,000 in 2010.
The 106 centres receive €13.5 million in funding.
Karin Jonsson, Chairperson Family Resource Centres National Forum (FRCNF) said that it is a relatively small investment, for such a significant return.
Our work saves the State in the long term, as dealing with families in crisis is costly and has far more repercussions for the parents and children involved.
Last year, the centres provided over 30,000 learning opportunities, including accredited training opportunities that enhanced people’s ability to access employment. Other education opportunities included community education courses aimed at giving people the positive experience and renewed confidence to explore further education.
Funding freeze
Since 2008, FRCs have had their funding frozen and since 2011 have received a year-on-year budgetary reduction of 5% in core funding, as well as cuts from other sources such as HSE, ETB’s National Lottery and the department of Social protection.
Jonsson said Ireland’s economic downturn has had a profound impact on the families and communities.
“Six years ago, we became inundated with people whose jobs were at risk and who had lost employment. Then, issues of debt and debt management took hold. More recently, we have been dealing with the impacts of long-term unemployment on communities,” she said.
She said that throughout all of this, FRCs have remained consistent in their approach, she said.
We have kept the needs of our communities central to our work-plans and outputs, and we have concentrated on early-intervention work to prevent people’s problems from becoming more complex.
The FRCNF said the capacity to take further cuts would take away some important early interventions that could cost the State and families significantly into the future.
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