More police resources have been allocated to Dublin following a spate of violent attacks, but organizations working at a local level with young people caught up in crime and anti-social behavior have said they are going beyond law and order. You believe that your services require additional investment.
Patrick Gates, coordinator of the Youth at Risk project, has lived in Ballyboe, in the city’s north-east, for about 40 years. He said criminals need to be held accountable for their criminal behavior, but they also need a “critical understanding of the root causes” and “how to prevent it.”
He said having extra gardaí on the streets was a “narrow and one-dimensional” approach to the problem, especially when adequate resources were not allocated to “break the cycle” of intergenerational deprivation. To tell.
Gates said many inner-city children are psychologically challenged by daily trauma, poverty, living with parents with drug problems, and seeing addiction around them.
“They are left on their own to survive. They feel left out and are filled with anger and bitterness. They either find adults to guide them or turn to crime, gangs, and drug sales. It’s either,” he says.
“Garda presence must be part of a wider community-oriented strategy. Three times as many young people are cared for in institutions in Ballyboe than in other parts of the country. Childcare facilities Only 30% of families have access to it, and only a few children receive a separation certificate, which would not be acceptable elsewhere.”
In addition to youth centers like the ones he works with, Gates argues for more public funding for schools, social services, mental health facilities and housing.
“Youth center workers can come as good adult representatives for these children, but they only scratch the surface of the need and there is no pathway to mental health services,” he added. Ta. “It is difficult to maintain qualified staff in local social services because there are not enough resources and the demands are too high. It seems like we are always putting out fires.
“Schools are also under strain. Teachers who come from outside the area don’t have the tools to understand the complex backgrounds of our children, so there’s always conflict. We don’t want to just kick them out. Instead, we need to ask ourselves, what are the means to deal with disruptive children?”
[ ‘Unprovoked attack’ leaves garda with serious facial injuries in Dublin ]
Gates believes early intervention, such as child care or after-school projects, is key to preventing young people from becoming involved in anti-social behavior and activities.
“But housing will always remain basic,” he added. “So many children in our region don’t have a safe, decent place to sleep, do their homework, or have their own space. They shouldn’t. [have to] The experience of couchsurfing and being kicked out of the house at that age. That’s the beginning of a slippery slope. ”
Eileen Crowley, manager of the HOPE community project in the city’s north, also said there were “not enough resources” for the day-to-day work to keep parents away from drugs and addiction.
She agrees that a broader community strategy needs to be developed.
“More street enforcement is good. But it shouldn’t be one or the other,” Crowley says. “Once they have access to rehabilitation, people in this community should have access to safe and secure housing. They should be able to use things like child care to help them get back to school.”
Mr Crawley’s views on the need for more drug treatment services are echoed by Fr Peter McVerry, who said in a recent letter to the Irish Times that more than 70 per cent of people going to prison are addicts. He pointed out that he was suffering from.
He wrote after Justice Minister Helen McEntee allocated an extra €10 million for policing in the capital this year. “If we want to reduce crime, wouldn’t it be more effective to invest in treatment options rather than Garda out-of-hours work?”
Catherine McSweeney, a former staff member at Donore Youth Community Center in the Liberties, said having more gardaí on the beat was “sometimes a good thing, but it meant that community security guards were not working on a daily basis”. “There may be better results if there is.”
“The local people will be willing to help, and if the kids are about to get into trouble, they’ll know and take care of it beforehand,” she said. added.
McSweeney has lived in the area for 30 years and is a leader in the local movement to reopen the youth and community center, which was damaged by fire in June 2021.
“We used to run summer camps, drama groups, breakfast groups, after-school clubs. There’s nothing for kids now,” she says. “We are lucky that no further anti-social behavior occurred.”
The Donore Community Drug and Alcohol Team has relocated to neighboring premises. However, the loss of the building itself is keenly felt*.
“The building was insured, so money wasn’t an issue,” McSweeney said. “There is no will on behalf of Dublin City Council. Their executives do not live here and at the end of the day they drive home to the beautiful suburbs.”
Other community members working locally are also pushing for the council to rent or take over available units to start new activities, but their pleas have only gotten a “no” answer. she says. “Those buildings will eventually be repurposed or demolished.”
A child climbs a rock strewn with garbage bags while looking out at a field of wildflowers next to a crumbling community center building.
“This is what they have to figure out now,” McSweeney says. “It would be so much easier if we just leveled these fields and gave the kids pitches to play on in the summer. Currently, the Liberty area has the least amount of green space per capita in the country.”
As the housing crisis continues, the region is becoming increasingly densely populated, with children living in emergency accommodation in hotel rooms and two or three families crammed into the same house. she added.
“Imagine coming home from school and not being able to call your friends or do anything good outside of the house.”
She pointed to Weaver Park, the only green space in the area. It has playground facilities and a skating track to keep kids of all ages occupied and entertained for hours.
“We don’t know where the nearest community center is because we don’t have a community center,” McSweeney added.
Dublin City Council was asked to comment on the situation in the Donore Avenue area.
Labor councilor Darragh Moriarty, who sits on the South Central regional committee, said the council would ensure all community services for evacuees were rehoused. But he believes this is a matter of “space” rather than “services” and that residents, especially young people whose schools are closed, have a right to be able to gather.
Moriarty said community officials are sometimes turned away when looking for land designated by the city council for renovations or space to use as a site. Works like this can take months or years to complete, he says, and people want to use those spaces in the meantime.
“Sometimes vacant buildings owned by councils are not let out because they don’t meet safety standards,” he added. It’s a circle. ”
*This article was amended on 30/08/23 to clarify that the Donore Community Drug and Alcohol Team has not ceased operations due to the closure of the Donore Community Center, but has relocated.