News

Exchange House National Travellers Service successfully delivered a Domestic Violence training programme with young men from the TASK group at Southside Travellers Action Group as part of the European Project; Sunia Geel 2.

Exchange House is working in partnership with organisations from Austria, Germany, Romania, and Italy for this project which is funded by the European Commission for Justice.  The aim of the project is to provide a framework to reduce violence against women and children of marginalised ethnic communities and ensure that their needs for safety and support are met. As young men have been identified as playing a crucial role in preventing domestic violence in communities; the participants were selected from the TASK group which is an education programme for young Travellers.  The aim is for these men to develop their awareness of domestic violence, further understand the issues involved, support others, and to identify and access support services available when needed.

The programme was delivered for a period of three weeks with six sessions in total.  The topics included; understanding domestic violence, the impact on those experiencing domestic violence (including children), how men can make a stand, culturally specific issues, peer support, further opportunities to learn, and resources available for response. A number of different teaching and learning approaches were used in order to actively engage the group. Resources included; videos, flipcharts, group discussions, physical activities, and individual support. As this area is highly emotive and may have personally affected some of the young men involved at some stage of their life; a high level of trust and confidentiality was involved throughout the course.  Open discussions facilitated the development of views and understanding and the diversity of experiences and opinions were central to the learning that took place for both the trainers and the participants. As the sessions concluded the young men stated they had a greater sense of understanding the role they can play combatting domestic violence in their community and felt that they had learned a lot from the programme.

For information or support in the area of domestic violence please contact the Family Support Department in Exchange House on 01 8721094.