Call for Govt to help fund programme for lone parents
One Family has called on the Government to help fund a programme that enables lone parents to enter further education and employment.
New Futures - established over two decades ago - is at risk of closure following years of reliance on philanthropic and EU funding.
The organisation that advocates for lone parents has said the programme will run out of funding in the coming months, unless the Government intervenes.
One Family warned successive Governments that this day would eventually come.
New Futures is an eight-month programme costing €2,500 per parent and has an average 75% progression rate for graduates into education, training and employment.
It has won numerous awards including the ESF prize at the annual Aontas awards (for education initiatives) on two occasions.
Rachel Pallin, Joyce Collins and Louise McLean are three recent graduates who have benefited greatly from the course.
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Speaking in front of a camera would have been an anathema to them in the past, but when we visited them at Dublin's Carmelite Centre - where two of the participants completed the course - they exuded a quiet confidence.
Each of them agreed that New Futures changed their lives, including former hairdresser Rachel Pallin, who suffers from social anxiety.
Her self-esteem, confidence, and communication skills developed through her participation.
"A lot of it is personal development, so therefore you feel like, okay, maybe these obstacles aren't as bad in my way as I thought, you know, when you get out of your mind and into socialisation. It's amazing," she said.
Ms Pallin will begin a two-year college course in Social Studies in September, to eventually become a child advocate.
She could not have foreseen herself taking this path prior to New Futures, which offered the required motivation and support from One Family mentors and fellow students.
"You're in a space where you can kind of be vulnerable and say, look, this is how I feel, especially as a lone parent," she said.
"Money is crazy at the minute, everything costs a lot of money, you know. There's big, long waiting lists for assessment needs, everything. So, all the obstacles are in lone parents' ways, you know what I mean?"
Having had a difficult childhood, her future is "a vocation" for children who have suffered like her.
"I don't know where these two years are going to take me. I might do a masters. You don't know. Anything is possible now. The world is my oyster."
One Family says New Futures, which has won numerous awards, provides an essential support
Lone parents can be isolated at times, according to Louise McClean who completed the online version of New Futures last year.
"I felt a bit hopeless and lost at the time to be honest," she says, "so, I really needed to do something."
The online course enabled her to meet many other women nationwide who were on the same page and "the same journey".
Having completed the course, Ms McLean applied to Dunboyne College of Further Education and qualified in office administration as a legal/medical secretary.
She is returning in September to begin a business course which will add another string to her bow.
One Family says New Futures provides an essential support for lone parents who are at "high risk of poverty and deprivation" but often lack the self-esteem or skills to move away from relying on social protection payments into education or employment.
Joyce Collins, who attended her New Futures graduation last week, points out that no lone parent wants to be on welfare payments.
The number of people who complete New Futures and are successful following the programme is proof of that, she says.
One Family CEO Karen Kiernan is calling on the Government to help fund the New Futures programme
Ms Collins began New Futures knowing that she was "more than a mother". She was also certain she did not want to return to a trade that she did not like.
Her dream is to work with animals and she is taking steps to achieve that by starting a course in September.
Despite the excellent outcomes, New Futures is in jeopardy, and One Family is seeking "a hero" in Government to step in.
One Family CEO Karen Kiernan has described it as "a no brainer" for the Government, considering that €2,500 is low when contrasted against the cost to the State of social protection payments, the cost of poverty and children's development.
In a statement, the Department of Social Protection pointed out that in 2021, it partnered with One Family for a multi-country EU-funded pilot project on, 'Lone Parents Digital Activation' and that lessons from the pilot were used to inform the department's employment support services for lone parents.
The department said it was drafting a new Pathways to Work Strategy, covering the period 2026 to 2030.
"This cross-government document will be the national employment services strategy for the remainder of the decade and will focus on how best to support people into employment. It is intended the strategy will be launched later this year," it said.
The statement also pointed out that the provision of resources to programmes such as New Futures would need to be considered within the overall suite of support for lone parent jobseekers.
