Fréa Renewing Roots has been supporting former residents of the Republic of Ireland’s Mother and Baby and County Homes, as well as other institutions, who are now living in the north of England, since 2022.
We have been providing free, confidential and trauma informed support on inquiries, such as accessing the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme, obtaining records held by institutions and accessing counselling.
In October 2023, we expanded our team to welcome Natalie Hughes-Crean and Ciaran Connolly. This allowed Fréa Renewing Roots to support more people and diversify our work.
At heart of this work is people. It is about people who were exploited, incarcerated, who were silenced and ignored. It is about empowering people and engaging with them on an individual and community level.
Fréa Renewing Roots has three central aims: to advise, to advocate and to publicise.
Over the next three weeks we will be reviewing our work over the previous 12 months.
Advice
Fréa Renewing Roots delivers trauma informed advice to anyone who contacts our service. To achieve this, we are flexible in our approach so that this we can fit in with the needs of the people whom we support. We meet people in our offices, in a community setting or on home visits, depending on a person’s needs. Meetings are delivered on a one-to-one basis, however an applicant can always bring along family member or friend if they wish to have further emotional or practical support.
Since our foundation, we have supported 53 people to apply to the of the different facets of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.
This year, we have faced new challenges with the opening of the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme, in March. For staff it was essential to understand the rules and regulations around the scheme so that we could deliver up to date information to applicants. This also meant that we had to familiarise ourselves with new online forms and paper applications, as well as the eligibility criteria for payment. As a result, Fréa Renewing Roots staff have now developed a great deal of knowledge and experience of the Payment Scheme.
Importantly for the people we support, our staff are authorised signatories of identification documents for the Payment Scheme. This has meant that they can get an application completed and submitted in one place. There is no need to involve a third person in the application process. We became authorised signatories of identification after we discussed the needs of our clients with the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
Applications to the Payment Scheme or to organisations such as TUSLA (who hold some institutional and personal records) can prove difficult for some people, as they are usually submitted online. Many former residents are digitally excluded. Therefore, we have helped with the submission of online applications. We always do this with the applicant so the process is genuinely collaborative. We discuss what information is required in an application and often why it is required so that people are fully engaged in the application.
On occasions where the Case Management Team cannot trace an applicants records, they request an Affidavit. Some applicants will find these extremely difficult to draw up. However, we secured additional support this year from Ireland-based solicitor Fionna Fox, who agreed to complete an Affidavit for our clients on a pro bono basis. Having a solicitor who understood the Mother and Baby Institution Payment Scheme has been of great assistance. The Fréa Renewing Roots team would like to pass on our heartfelt gratitude for this invaluable support. Milé buiochois, Fionna.
Our support does not end at the submission of these applications. It carries on until a decision is reached and sometimes beyond that. We have undertaken follow-up work either on the phone, online or via a pre-planned face to face appointment. This has included sitting down and discussing correspondence that applicants receive from government departments in Ireland, calling the Mother and Baby Institution Payment team to check on the progress of an application. Sometimes it has just been to check in with someone and have a chat.
As well as developing this in-depth knowledge, staff have continued to support people with other aspects of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions. We have supported people to make applications for records held on their time spent in institutions. On occasions this has involved applying to several different organisations, such as TUSLA, the Department for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Adoption Authority of Ireland, as well as the local Councils, the Health Service Executive. We can never guarantee obtaining records, because we never know what information is being held – but we will always exhaust every avenue.
In addition to this ,we have continued to refer people for counselling with Immigrant Counselling and Psychotherapy who deliver specialist support for people who were in institutions in Ireland.
In order to do be able to deliver this service, staff have been constantly keeping up to date with each different aspect of the Irish Government Action Plan for Survivors of Institutions to better understand how this works.
We often receive lovely feedback from the people whom we support, but one comment that stood out this year was that ‘you’re here to talk, not to get gossip.’ This is important. Many people are reluctant to talk, even briefly about their experiences in Ireland’s institutions. Some have never told another person, not even close family members. And while we understand that people who have lived in institutions should never carry stigma, we also understand that this is not always the reality. Therefore, being told that we are an organisation that people can trust and talk to is important feedback for our service.
These last 12 months have been a period of development for Fréa Renewing Roots. It has been one of growth. Working with people who were in institutions and their family members has enabled our staff to develop in our role.
We look forward to this coming 12 months and engaging with new people so that we can continue to offer the support that they want.
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Meet the team and get in touch here: https://www.frea.org.uk/motherandbabyhomestaff
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