Family Support

What is Family Support?

FACT Ballincollig FRC recognises that Family Support is underpinned by a set of principles which include working in partnership with children, young people and parents/guardians as well as partnership amongst agencies and practitioners. Ballincollig FRC Family Support team focus on the existing strengths and resilience of children, young people and families with attention being paid to accessing their informal networks of support when advocating on their behalf.

A key objective of Family support project is to provide a full assessment of a family’s needs, addressing both strengths and areas of concern. The team engages with families in areas such as parenting, relationship building and communication within families, life story work with children in care, shared parenting with separated or divorced parents, parenting with foster carers. In addition, the team works with many families who experience abuse and are isolated within their communities.

This project is a therapeutic family support project, which could be described as child-focused in nature and operating at a protective level.

Within the family support service, we provide a range of services including one-one parenting support, Advocacy support, Signposting and Referral Service, Parenting programmes & Workshops Summer camps and Meitheals

Online Referral
Opening Hours
How can children and families access family support at Ballincollig Family Resource Centre?

Contact our Family Support Team on 021-4876295 or familysupportworker2@ballincolligfrc.org to enquire about our family support services.

  • meitheal

The aim of Meitheal

is to achieve better outcomes for your family and your child or young person.

Meitheal can support families with a range of challenges, such as

  • Additional needs,
  • Illness or bereavement
  • Difficult behaviour
  • Challenges at school or school attendance
  • Feeling down
  • Supporting your relationship with your child
Meitheal

What is Meitheal?

Meitheal is a Tusla-led early intervention national practice model. It identifies a child’s and their families needs and strengths and brings together a team around the child to deliver preventative support.

Meitheal is an old Irish term that “describes how neighbours would come together to assist in the saving of crops or other tasks.”In this context, Meitheal is a National Practice Model to ensure that the needs and strengths of children and their families are effectively identified and understood and responded to in a timely way so that children and families get the help and support needed to improve children’s outcomes and realise their rights

Meitheal and the Area Based Approach

“It is a coordinated, multi-agency approach which aims to ensure that interventions maximise families’ dignity, autonomy and self-determination. Meitheal is a strengths-based tool that is used to identify the strengths of families and provide coordinated multi-agency support to families and children.”

The Cork  Child and Family Support Network (CFSN) in collaboration with the Prevention, Partnership & Family Support (PPFS) Service within Tusla facilitate local services to support families through the Meitheal Process.

In Ballincollig FRC, our family support workers are trained as lead practitioners of Meitheal. This means

  • They can support you and your child or young person in identifying their strengths and needs.
  • They will facilitate Meitheal support meetings with relevant practitioners of the services who can support your child or young person.
  • They will all support you and your child to follow your plan to make the changes you and your child or young person want.

You may already be receiving support from various services but can find it difficult to manage it all at once, Meitheal can support you to coordinate services and bring everyone together.

Meitheal is a voluntary service and is led by you and your child or young person and you decide how long you want to receive this support.