Our Opinions Matter: an Action Research Project with Parents and Children in the Canal Communities: Final Report
Year: 2008
Type: report
Abstract: Development of meaningful and effective supports for parents and children is an important focus in the work of the Canal Communities Partnership (CCP).In 2006, the CCP brought together statutory, community and voluntary agencies working with parents and children across the Canal Communities Area to explore the range of supports available to parents.In the course of these discussions, the question arose about whether what was on offer was helpful and if it was meeting parents' needs.It was also identified that there was a need for an integrated approach to be taken by the services offering this support.Consequently it was agreed that in order to determine how to best support families living in the Canal Communities Area they needed to be consulted.To oversee this consultation process, a steering group which included representatives from Rialto Family Centre, Rialto Community Drug Team, Inchicore Community Drug Team, Fatima Regeneration Board, Local Drugs Task Force and CCP was established.This Steering Group felt strongly that the consultation process needed to be about directly hearing the voices of young children and parents living in the Canal Communities Area.It was envisaged that a research project using participatory action research methodology would give a true 'voice' to those being consulted.The Centre for Social and Educational Research was subsequently then commissioned by CCP to undertake the research using this methodology.The research is timely and important for a number of reasons.It has given an opportunity for children and parents to talk about the important issues that impact on their lives.It outlines their experiences of living in the CCP area, their needs in general and specifically those needs they feel are not being met.The report articulates frustrations from parents about their voices not being heard and opinions not being valued about the developments within their communities.A wide range of issues are raised in this report including safety, adequacy of housing and accommodation, play areas, access to childcare and access to employment.The report emphasises the huge level of need which exists within the canal communities' area.It identifies that ongoing effective communication with residents needs to be established in order for services to successfully address parents' needs.In this report a model is proposed in which services and residents work in partnership to ensure the effective flow of information within the Canal Communities Area.It is expected that if this model is adopted it will inform strategic planning and service development.In addition the issues raised will be brought to the attention of policy makers.The initial discussions for this work focused on whether, the supports on offer were helpful and meeting the needs of children and parents.Through the research, parents and children have enlightened services to the complexity of the issues impacting on family life, that can prevent or make it difficult to access supports including parenting support programmes.The key learning from this research identifies the importance of taking families needs into account when designing support programmes for parents and children.This poses particular challenges in the context of a changing economic climate.
Authors: Nóirín Hayes, Jonathan Ilan, Sinéad Kelly
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2099653181