Single, separated, deserted and divorced people with children may be helped by an initiative in Galway. A former fruit and vegetable market is being transformed into an independent parenting centre that aims to be the first of its type in the west of Ireland, if not the State.
Grandparents caring for young children will also be able to use the centre, as will anyone who is child-rearing independently, "whatever colour, creed, sex or planet", says Sharon Sharpe-Campbell, the driving force behind the project.
She was deserted and left with two children in the early 1990s. Her experience has convinced her of the need to offer the sort of no-strings-attached moral support that extends beyond existing systems and structures.
She became involved through a part-time service, run through Galway Diocesan Youth Services, in 1998/1999. Keen to develop that concept, she began hunting for premises, and a private company with a strong link to community activities in the city offered to help with initial funding, including rent.
Independent Parenting Services Ltd, as the venture is known, has now applied to Galway City Partnership and other agencies for financial backing. The premises, in the old Silke's fruit and vegetable market on Munster Avenue, has been prepared with the help of volunteers, including many single and married men, she says. It will offer in-house and outreach courses, information, an accommodation-sharing network, and counselling.
While there isn't scope for a creche, child-minding will be available for parents who sign up to courses.
Ms Sharpe-Campbell is aware many independent parents don't pursue an absent co-parent for maintenance of a child or children, and she knows the existing State supports have their limitations. "There is a strong belief among women in this situation that the Government gives with one hand and takes away with the other, while many independent parents also view social services, which are there to offer support, as a threat," she says.
Some of these issues are explored in the recent Review of the One-Parent Family Payment, carried out by the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, and published last September. It found that half of those who were unmarried and recipients of the one-parent family payment 10 years ago are still receiving it today, and that 30 per cent of lone parents are living below the 50 per cent relative-income poverty line (1997 data). A proposal to give a short-term emergency allowance to teenage mothers to encourage them to return to education was also made a in a report presented earlier this year to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Family, Community and Social Affairs.
Overall, the Minister's review judged that the one-parent family payment was fulfilling a valuable role, but with qualifications. Commenting on the study, the Minister said he was concerned at continued high poverty rates for lone parents, and said he would be bringing forward measures to overcome barriers to employment.
He also said that he would like to see support from the "absent" parent playing a much more important role, and warned he would study the review's options in this area, "including the proposal that the system is enforced more vigorously, while bearing in mind value-for-money considerations".
Sharon Sharpe-Campbell would like to see the community of independent parents "taking ownership" of their individual situations. "It is a very difficult job, but one that should be seen as a task of self-empowerment. No one familiar with child-rearing is under any illusions about the struggle involved in doing it on your own, but we'd like to stress the positive - as much as we can."
The Independent Parenting Centre at Munster Avenue, Galway, opens this week.
