A charity in Port Talbot, who say they’re one of the first of their kind anywhere in Wales hopes to be a centre for help for families suffering through the struggles of the care system, and wants professionals and families to learn from each other.
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00:00It takes a village to raise a child and we really believe that, but some people haven't
00:08got that village, some people haven't got grandparents that can support, some people
00:11don't know how to access, especially since Covid, we just don't get out, we don't communicate
00:17within our communities anymore, so we want to be the village.
00:20FGC, Feed Gobeidh Cymru has just opened its doors for the first time and hopes to become
00:25a place where families suffering through hardships and struggling through the protective services
00:29to help them navigate and feel comfortable and empowered to move forward together.
00:34It's founded by people who have experience in the care system and hope that they can
00:38be a centre for help for those families.
00:40Yeah, so essentially FGC is a service that we knew it was lacking in terms of, there
00:48was gaps in local authority, third sector in terms of supporting vulnerable families
00:55for various different reasons, so for us it was really important that because of the
01:01impact of having involvement but also having the resources provided is there, so not just
01:10during but after as well, we're focusing on looking after and supporting families that
01:17are going through adversity, so any families that have been through child protection involvement
01:23or family court in particular, so we're a buy and pour organisation, so we are people
01:29with lived experience, we just want to give back because we know what it's like to suffer
01:33and we know what it's like to not perhaps have as much support as we would like, so
01:39we just want to emulate that and really just make a difference.
01:44Captain Beany is an advocate for charities all across Port Talbot and he says being a
01:48part of the event here today is a great privilege and hopes it can spur on more community
01:53services like FGC.
01:55Well as you well know I've been a member of a community for the best part of 50 years
01:59in the Salvin's Estate Port Talbot and I know I've seen changes within my life of things
02:06that have happened for the good and the bad in the community and I notice now there's
02:11a better understanding of people's problems associated with mental health, physical and
02:21mental and all credit to all the people here who are making an effort to get the people
02:28in the community to galvanise themselves for those who are less fortunate than themselves.
02:34People coming in and they're really broken and really don't know where to turn, they're
02:38facing the cost of living crisis, they're on the border of going to child protection
02:43or going from family court or we've got a lot of dads that have come in and they don't
02:47know the process of how to handle private law if they're not seeing their children or
02:51they don't think they're allowed to see their children, they don't understand how they can
02:56get the right support, they can come to us and we can guide them in that process.