A new group of students recently commenced their studies on the Certificate in Understanding and Responding to Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Abuse at South East Technological University.
This is a Level 8 course targeted at frontline professionals. It provides the opportunity to develop greater capacity to understand, identify and respond to domestic violence and abuse appropriately.
The Domestic Abuse Action Network of Carlow Children and Young People's Services Committee (CYPSC) has worked with the Faculty of Lifelong Learning at SETU to deliver this course for a second time in 2022.
A key objective of Carlow's Domestic Abuse Action Network was to realise the delivery of training for practitioners working in local services. The Network developed this course to promote:
- a shared understanding of Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) in support of improved interagency responses
- knowledge of the impacts of DVA on both adults and on children and young people
- identification of the signs that a person was experiencing DVA
- development of capacity and confidence to best support someone experiencing DVA or living in a violent/abusive home environment.
The issue of DVA has been thrown into sharp focus by statistics being published by Domestic Violence services, An Gardaí Síochána, Tusla and the Central Statitstics Office which show that incidence of DVA reports increased by 20-25% during the public health restrictions arising from Covid 19. Community child, youth and family services in Carlow and Kilkenny have also recounted to Carlow CYPSC an increase in the number of people using their services and seeking support around DVA.
The Certificate in Understanding and Responding to Domestic and Gender-based Violence and Abuse was first run in April-June 2022. Reflections gathered from students noted putting themselves "in the woman's shoes" and that
“The course has taught me to step back and meet the client where they are at.”
Funding to deliver two rounds of the course was sourced from the What Works Learning Together Fund.
You can visit Carlow CYPSC's Local Resources page to find out more or contact the Carlow CYPSC Co-ordinator at mairead.maddock@tusla.ie
To find out what other local CYPSC are working on visit the Your County CYPSC page.