Family Mediation Week: Empowering families
Kerry Watson, Service Manager with Cyrenians Mediation & Support, blogs here for Family Mediation Week. She is deeply passionate about mediation and whole family support roles that help families build strong, empowering and resilient relationships.
Early Intervention
Strong, positive relationships are the key to health and wellbeing for all of us, and for our young people these strong relationships are the foundation on which they develop resilience, mental wellbeing and start the journey towards positive and exciting destinations.
Yet often, for a number of reasons, families relationships can become strained, with terrible consequences. Family breakdown is the number one cause of youth homelessness in Scotland, and we believe that with the proper support, many of these situations could be prevented or resolved.
At Cyrenians Mediation & Support we recognise the need to support ALL family members to become empowered to face the challenges in their lives that impact relationships, with sometimes devastating consequences. We believe that early intervention, working with families before the worst consequences have been felt, sets families up for success, and is our priority wherever possible.
Removing Barriers
Our mediators work tirelessly to help families talk, reach shared understanding and use their voice to build strong, safe and secure homes amongst love ones. Mediation is an incredible tool for families wherein challenging situations can be discussed in a different, more productive way.
Our family outreach workers seek to remove barriers preventing people reaching their full potential by supporting the uptake and access to education, employment, family activities and much more. They recognise the impact that neurodiversity has on families and support them to embrace and celebrate the diversity in their own, whilst mitigating any challenges posed.
Everyday Inspiration
Every day I am inspired by stories from my colleagues of young people and families who have begun a journey to truly understand their rights, finding their voice and building stronger, more resilient relationships.
We are often told this is the first time a family has had support like this, and it has truly helped their relationships at home. It is a privilege to be allowed to be a part of this change, and at Cyrenians we will continue to work hard to make positive and lasting change happen for Scotland's families.
