Mother & Baby Survivors
A number of survivors who attend our Centre had their terms in religious and state run institutions extended beyond the age of sixteen as some were transferred to Magdalene Laundries while others were born in Mother and Baby institutions or gave birth in those institutions.
Consequently in 2020 Christine Buckley Centre for Education and Support formally extended its services to support other survivors of Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby institutions. We welcome all survivors of Mother and Baby institutions and Magdalene laundries into our classes and support services.
In advance of publication of the report from the Commission of Inquiry into Mother and Baby Homes in 2020 we also made a submission to Roderic O'Gorman Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to offer him and survivors our expertise in assisting survivors.
We pointed out that through education, personal development, holistics and creativity in a community setting our centre will ensure that people are not alone or made to feel different.
We also pointed out that research on the ongoing and future needs of survivors who were incarcerated in abusive residential institutions, industrial schools and other places of detention were identified in our Facing the Future Together report and these also apply to survivors of Mother and Baby institutions
We asked Minister O’Gorman to provide survivors of Mother and Baby institutions with
o Enhanced medical cards and support with housing
o Free easily accessible counselling services for survivors and their families
o Provision of advocacy supports for survivors in the long-term, including accessing public services, linkage with support services, homelessness and addiction supports
o In addition we asked for training in trauma-informed practice for all medical and public service staff who work in customer-facing roles so that they can identify survivors and know which different approaches should be undertaken to provide them with the support they may require.
o Identification of supports needed by survivors based outside of Ireland.
The Facing the Future Together report is based on evidence-based qualitative research from respected academics, input from survivors of industrial schools and knowledge sharing from service providers with years of experience.
The report is the work of a partnership of seven organisations, Christine Buckley Centre for Education and Support, Barnardo’s Origins, Caranua, One in Four, HSE National Counselling Service, Right of Place Second Chance and Towards Healing, who came together to highlight and advocate for action on five key ‘asks’ from the State for survivors of institutional abuse.