Sir, – I am writing in response to your Crime Statistics Ireland series (Weekend Review Home News, August 18th-24th) and in particular to the findings that Tallaght had the highest number of controlled drug offences and the highest number of burglaries.
While these findings were not representative of how Tallaght featured overall, clearly it is a cause for concern.
To place some context on the findings, the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) published a report called How Are Our Families? earlier this year which provided an insight into life in Tallaght West. Its findings highlighted challenges in relation to anti-social behaviour and financial difficulties faced by families.
However, the research also showed a strong sense of resilience in the area with families coping well in relation to health, parenting and general wellbeing. It also showed a strong sense of community and social initiative.
A relevant example of work taking place in Tallaght West is a community programme called “Restorative Practice”, which is co-ordinated by Childhood Development Initiative.
Restorative practice involves training local people, and those working with them, to establish community-based structures and the capacity for communication and action to respond to and reduce anti-social behaviour and crime. This model has proved successful in some problem locations and it is being developed into a model for community development work. The first fully restorative practice compliant location (a local secondary school) will be launched this October.
We hope that this model of practice will be replicated in other schools, community centres, youth centres and sports clubs across Tallaght and that this model will also be of use to other communities.
Details will be announced in early October at www.twcdi.ie– Yours, etc,