Derry Charity in funding crisis

A Derry charity supporting and promoting male health and wellbeing, may have to close its doors in March, unless it receives crucial core funding.

The situation is critical for Men’s Action Network (MAN), which is based in Patrick Street, as the group is coming to the end of its current Big Lottery Fund grant and has only enough money to keep its services going until the end of this financial year.

Michael Lynch, the organisation’s director of services and development, said if the group was forced to close, it would have a devastating impact on the level of services provided for men in the city.

Creggan born and bred, Michael, who has worked with Men’s Action Network for the past 28 years and recently scooped the Charity Person of the Year at an awards’ ceremony in the city, is retiring at the end of the year.
Speaking to Derry News, he was keen to highlight the broad range of projects undertaken by Men’s Action Network and its reach into the community.

“There are two elements to our work,” said Michael. “There is the support work and the promotion, the advocacy work.

“We offer a generic counselling service. We do a lot of work to support male victims of domestic and sexual abuse.

“We do a lot around addictions. We do a lot around relationship difficulties. We do a lot around fathering. We have FareShare, so we distribute some food, non perishables, to people in need.

“We also have a crisis intervention officer because a large piece of our work is around suicide prevention.”

“We talk about mental fitness, as opposed to mental health, because of the stigma associated with it. That is the support work.

“We do that here. We have also done it in schools and in prisons. It is really about creating a safe space for men and boys.

“There is the saying, ‘It is good to talk’ and it is important to create the space where that happens. That is where the expertise of Men’s Action Network lies. Our belief has always been, ‘If you create the right environment, you hear what is going on and you can do something about it, as opposed to not doing something about it,’” said Michael.

Men’s Action Network works closely with the youth sector.

According to Michael, it would be out at all of the city’s civic events including Hallowe’en, Christmas and St Patrick’s Day.

“We would also offer the youth sector ongoing counselling support, particularly around youths in crisis,” said Michael.

“Our job is also to challenge men whenever they may be displaying behaviour that is not always healthy or may be abusive.

“We are all about early intervention. One of the projects we had was called TEAR (Towards Eradicating Abusive Relationships). In the past we have worked with Fermanagh Women’s Aid, where we carried out joint work around elder abuse and they would have supported us in our Fathering Families project.

“While we would advocate for men and the need for services for men, we also are part of the discussion about violence towards women and girls, where men need to play an active role in societal change.

“We are involved in a lot of different forums to try and promote the work. We are part of the Western Domestic and Sexual Abuse Partnership, where we would be advocating for and supporting male victims but equally, we work along with those other partners. Our sense is, ‘Let’s work together to try to reduce / eradicate this’. The hope would be we will but that is a huge societal change that requires a lot of work,” said Michael.

Men’s Action Network also sits on the Regional Stakeholders’ Group, the regional group which addresses domestic and sexual abuse.

“Again we advocate for men,” said Michael, “while working in partnership with others towards the common goal of eradication.

“In addition, we have been involved with ongoing reviews of the Gender Equality Strategy to ensure the inclusion of men’s voices, experiences, and needs are amplified.

“Men’s Action Network is connected to the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland and forums throughout Britain and beyond. We would help develop the theme for Men’s Health Week each year and then we would deliver certain things, primarily preventative health MOTs in the likes of Foyleside. We also go into businesses. We would give mental health talks as well.

“About 10 years ago, we tried to present to the Health Authority the need for men’s health policy, similar to the first of its kind in the Republic. That is changed now to Healthy Ireland but there is still a lot of policy aimed specifically at men. However, within our own government, there is really nothing.

“Often within government circles, the only time we really give money to men’s work is when we are in trouble or causing trouble. Funding usually comes through the Northern Ireland Office for young offenders. There are minimal resources put into the developmental stage of men,” said Michael.

Men’s Action Network has a focus around the emotional health of men and their wellbeing.

It is involved in developing the Manifest programme, which is based on the Engage model in the Republic.

“Manifest focuses on men and their mental fitness. Going forward, we hope to pilot it with some of the Trusts,” said Michael.

“Wherever we can, we try to advocate for men and particularly at governmental level, what we are trying to do with the new Gender Equality Strategy is to, at least, open the possibility that it will include men’s health.

“Under the Protect Life Strategy it is recognised that men are one of the high risk groups in terms of suicide.

“The two starkest statistics in men’s health in the wider context is that we die between five and six years younger than women and, sadly, we take our lives at least three to four times as often and in some more marginalised groups, that statistic is higher again.”

Crucially, Michael acknowledged that while Men’s Action Network’s job was to advocate for men, it also recognised the behaviour of men had been detrimental to others, so wherever it could, it would try and see if it could work in collaboration with other organisations.

“One of the approaches being developed currently is the Bystander Programme, which is really the idea that those in authority or who have influence, particularly over men and young boys, can challenge men and young boys about their behaviour and say, ‘This isn’t acceptable’.

“You might see examples of it currently in some of the advertisements in England. You would probably see it in some of the soap operas in England, where it is coming through. You might see the likes of Gareth Southgate challenging men.
The point is, this is a huge societal change and while women are rightly at the forefront, non-offending men need to play our part and be able to challenge men and young boys around their behaviour because what we are doing to each other is horrendous and, for us, it needs to be stopped.”

Reiterating the underpinning ethos of Men’s Action Network, Michael said: “We create a safe space for any man to come and find a place to speak and from that whatever emerges, we will try to find a solution.”