Barnardos Moyross celebrates 30 years of helping Limerick families

Barnardos Moyross celebrates 30 years of helping Limerick families. Celebration at Barnardos in Limerick, to celebrate 30 years supporting children and families in the city.

Barnardos Moyross celebrated 30 years of supporting children and families across Limerick with a special celebration event

Barnardos Moyross celebrated 30 years of working with children and families across Limerick with a special event, inviting more than 50 people and seeing contributions from families who have received support, funders Tusla, and community partners.  

Barnardos has been providing intensive family support services and targeted groupwork programmes in Limerick for many years, and Barnardos has responded to the needs of families living across the city and county by developing a range of services in partnership with Tusla – and formerly Mid-Western Health Board/HSE.

In 1995, Barnardos’ first service in Limerick, the Barnardos Moyross Family Support Project, was set up in response to families experiencing difficulties within the catchment area.  It was developed in partnership with the then Mid-Western Health Board.  The service expanded in following years to cover Kileely and Ballynanty, Moyross and Thomondgate.    

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Three years later, Barnardos Southill Family Support Project was established to support families in Southill, which expanded to include Our Lady of Lourdes and Ballincurra Weston by 2003.  

In 2002, Barnardos Islandgate Family Support Project in King’s Island was established as part of the second phase of the Springboard initiative, with a catchment area of King’s Island, St. Mary’s Park and surrounding estates.

2011 saw a significant change take place; the demographics of Limerick city changed due to regeneration. As a result, many families had been moved out of the traditional catchment areas of Barnardos Family Support Projects. This led to a reconfiguration of Barnardos’ services across Limerick city and county – to better respond to the needs of children and their families.  

In 2013 Barnardos Homemaker Family Support Service, an early intervention, home-based family support service, was established.  

Today, Barnardos services, primarily funded by Tusla with additional support from philanthropic donations, provide intensive family support across Limerick city and county, working directly with vulnerable children and families who have been affected by traumatic life events such as poverty, separation & bereavement, parental mental health difficulties and addiction.

Barnardos is a trauma-informed organisation helping children and their families to build resilience, to believe in their capacities and to live with hope and positive expectations of and for themselves and their lives. Barnardos’ approach identifies the individual needs of each child within their family, which informs a plan to bring positive change in their life.  Services for children and families are delivered in a variety of locations such as family homes, local schools and in Barnardos centres.    

Laura Keane, Project Leader, Barnardos Limerick North, said, ” The first Barnardos service in Limerick opened its doors in Moyross in 1995, as a partnership between the Mid–Western Health Board, Barnardos and the local community. The vision was to provide a family support service, in the heart of the community, to improve outcomes for children and their parents, to improve parenting skills and parent/child relationships, to improve children’s welfare and wellbeing through tailored family work interventions, while also providing services to the wider community with a preventative and early intervention focus, through targeted groupwork and provision of practical supports.

“The local team worked with the Healthboard, then the HSE and now Tusla to adapt to support the changing needs of families across Limerick.  We have moved towards a more intensive family support model, adopting a trauma-informed approach in 2019, and we have retained groupwork such as the Barnardos breakfast and after-school clubs.  We, along with local partners and funders Tusla, are incredibly proud of the achievements of the service and our incredible staff throughout the past 30 years. It’s been a privilege to work with the many families who have come through Barnardos’ doors over the years, and we look forward to supporting families across Limerick well into the future”.

A parent said, “Working with Barnardos helped me to become a calmer, easier parent. With their help, I was able to prioritise my children’s wellbeing and my own as well, it was an amazing journey, and I am very grateful to Barnardos. We are in a good place today because of the support we received”.

Kate Duggan, CEO of Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, said that following 30 years of service, the charity “remains a valuable support to children and families in Limerick”.

She said, “Their physical location in communities and their knowledge of them, especially through the generations, is a vital support to keeping children safe and ensuring that they reach their full potential.  Tusla is proud of the €1.1 million it provides in funding to Barnardos in Limerick, including this service in Moyross, to deliver family support and early intervention services, in partnership with Tusla in the Region.  Today was a great opportunity to hear first-hand from the children, young people, and families about the positive impact this funding and this service have had on their lives.”