Elaine Biggins is the new Team Leader at Solas Óg, a therapeutic service for children and young people, delivered by COPE Galway’s Domestic Abuse Service. Since Elaine joined as a support worker in 2016, she has witnessed many positive developments within Solas Óg, including the recent introduction of three designated teams for Education, Outreach, and Refuge.
Solas Óg has rapidly expanded in response to client needs. In 2019, we were invited to pitch our vision for the service, which resulted in a game-changing multi-year philanthropic funding commitment. Since then, Solas Óg has jumped from three to fifteen staff, all working on fantastic projects.
With this support, we have been able to develop a best practice, child-centred domestic abuse service, aimed at boosting the self-esteem, resilience, and mental health of children and young people up to the age of 25. We have also continued to support mums with parenting and to educate young people about healthy relationships.
As team leader, and with experience across various roles over the years, I want to be able to support and offer guidance to staff as best I can. We had all been juggling multiple roles, from outreach work to school visits and onsite duties at our playroom, which made things challenging for a while. Now, with three specific teams in place, it is much easier to focus on individual areas. We all still come together every Wednesday – to catch up, share ideas and support one another.
Over the past five years, the Solas Óg team has achieved so much. In 2020, after we moved from Waterside House to our much bigger space at Modh Eile House, we developed a purpose-built playroom, a youth space and outdoor play areas. We expanded our refuge support for families, our outreach work in the community and our educational programmes in schools.
In 2023, our Education Team delivered five-week Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships workshops to 600 second year students across 12 county schools. We are really proud of this programme and feedback has been extremely positive.
These workshops explore topics like establishing boundaries with a partner or challenging the negative effects of stereotyping.
Solas Óg’s playroom at Modh Eile House also offers one-to-one therapeutic sessions and parenting support for young people and their mothers living in refuge.
There is no judgement at Solas Óg. It’s a safe space to express any emotion – happy, sad, angry, or lonely. The children’s sessions are individualised and child-led, allowing them to talk, play games, or do arts and crafts.
One approach we use is the Therapeutic Touchstone Story. It involves gathering details from mum about her childs milestones, such as birthdays and family events, and then recounting the story with the child. We might begin with, ‘Mum and Dad were so in love with you when you were born’ or ‘you had the cutest smile and dimples’, before moving on to more challenging periods. I always give them an old TV remote so they can pause, skip parts, or correct details as I tell their story. We build on this in later sessions. Our knowledge of their story comforts them, and it helps build trust and transparency.
Our outreach team has also supported several young people who are in an abusive and controlling relationship. They discuss their relationship at their own pace, and we work with them on managing boundaries, safety planning, communication, ending relationships safely, self-care, etc. We have also developed weekly youth spaces, where young people can get creative, build self-esteem, or chat with their peers about managing their experiences.
I’m really optimistic about the continued growth and impact of Solas Óg. The expansion of our Education Team means they can reach even more schools to try and keep up with the demand. Our Outreach Team reaches deep into communities across the county, and we have plans to connect with sports clubs and youth groups next, raising awareness through community engagement along the way.
We are so proud that Solas Óg has become a model for working with children and young people up to the age of 25 who are dealing with domestic abuse. We won’t stop until we have extended our support to every corner of the community!