The Big House (Ireland): A place where love is shared

The Big House began as the vision of Dr Angela Minion when she suffered with ME (Myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome) for nine years from the age of 12 to 21. During this time she felt God gave her a vision for The Big House, a place of peace, beauty and love that felt like you were walking into someone's home - not a clinic or youth centre, but what felt like a family home.

Angela studied and obtained a doctorate in Pastoral Care but also set up the charity to begin to answer the needs of young people that she encountered in her youth work experience. This was with young people inside and outside of the church. Support for young people in the form of counselling, training, camps and training of adults who worked with young people were her initial priorities as finding and purchasing a property were outside the range of a new charity.

After a number of years and having established a very good reputation in these areas of work, a property was found in 2020 and purchased in 2021 in the Limavady area, close to the Roe Valley Park and north coast. Through fundraising and generous donations from supporters and friends and a loan from Stewardship the funds were raised to purchase the house.

 

 

Over the past two years development work on the grounds has happened as well as plans for the development of the house and site being drawn up which include accommodation and a meeting room. These facilities will aim to provide accommodation for young people to be able to stay for weekends or longer dependent on their needs.

They have just received planning permission for this next stage and are aware that they may need to raise a further £450,000 to complete development.

 

Who is Big House Ireland?

 

The Big House (Ireland) works with young people offering hope when situations feel difficult and are unsure how to respond. The Big House provide counselling services to young people in the northwest of Northern Ireland and in the greater Belfast area. Young people in schools are taken through a programme called 'Shaken' which introduces them to 20 positive coping mechanisms aimed at helping them deal with any difficulties they experience in life. This has led to working with local social workers in GP practices who have young people on waiting lists for CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) or others who just need a little more support. A pilot is ongoing and being monitored by other social workers. The Big House are also in the process of fulfilling a request from schools in Uganda who are interested in the programme and are seeking support to be able to make this happen. They are working closely with another charity that works in Uganda in schools already.

Big House has links with other organisations such as Scripture Union, Young Life and Home for Good and are seeking to find ways in which they can support the work they are involved in and how best to use the facilities they have.

 

GIVE

The Big House has taken out a 15 year loan on the property and if you would like to support them either by a one-off gift or a regular donation that will help pay off the loan quicker, you can do so through the link below.

Support The Big House Ireland

 

PRAY

1. More people to come forward to support Big House in prayer for their work

2. More opportunities to be able to help young people

3. The staff team - for health and the ability to be able to provide support for the young people and those they work with

4. Planning permission to be granted

5. Funds to be found to enable the plans to become a reality

6. Regular financial supporters to enable the work to continue and grow in impact