Family Resource Centres issue letter to reassure anxious families

The six Family Resource Centres in Carlow and Kilkenny have had to take the unprecedented step of issuing a joint letter to thousands of Carlow/Kilkenny families to inform them of the precarious position of the future of their local community centres and family services following reports of their possible closure in local media.

Media coverage on the An Board Snip Nua recommendation to close the Family Support Agency that funds the local Family Resource Centre programme has resulted in huge numbers of calls and enquiries from local families and the public to the highly regarded family centres in Newpark Close, The Butts, Urlingford and Callan in Kilkenny and in Bagenalstown and Tullow in Carlow.

“We have never fielded so many calls from the public, or enquiries from local families as to what they can do to help, on any issue in our long history in this community,” said Margaret Phelan, chairperson of Newpark Close Family Centre in the city. “People are genuinely shocked at the recommendation to close our Family Resource Centres and the implications it has for them and their children as service users. All six family centres are reporting the same phenomena in their communities with many callers, volunteers and visitors asking us - is there something they can do?”

The letter from the six FRCs in Carlow and Kilkenny will try to reassure their thousands of service users that the closure is not imminent and is entirely dependent on the Government and whether it accepts or rejects the recommendation in the McCarthy Report to close the Family Support Agency.

“We were grateful to get what we felt were very genuine responses from our local TDs who all stated at a recent meeting that they would fight this recommendation, as they recognised not only the return the Government gets for its investment in our communities, but the economic and social value of our family centres to thousands of families and children in Carlow and Kilkenny, and we are asking the many people who have contacted us asking what they can do, to contact their local TD before the key parliamentary meeting on September 14,” said Pat Brennan, chairperson of the Fr McGrath Centre in Kilkenny.

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