Throughout 2025, the St Jeanne Antide Foundation (SJAF) continued to witness a reality that many families across Malta know too well: poverty and social exclusion. These are not static conditions, but evolving crises shaped by rising living costs, trauma, caregiving responsibilities, and systems that are often too rigid to respond quickly.

The Foundation's annual report reflects a year marked by increased demand for support, greater complexity in people's lived realities, and an urgent need for social responses that move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. Behind every statistic lies a family navigating uncertainty, a parent choosing between food and utilities, a caregiver stretched beyond capacity, or a child carrying the weight of adverse experiences far beyond their years.

While Malta has made progress in developing poverty reduction strategies, the Foundation's work continues to highlight persistent gaps in the social support system. Too often, people and families in urgent need find themselves excluded by rigid eligibility criteria or forced into impossible waiting times by lengthy bureaucratic processes. The professionals tasked with supporting them are aware of the crisis but left without the tools to intervene swiftly.

All last year, the Foundation responded by offering flexible, person-centred support to those who fall through these cracks - providing immediate assistance, advocacy, and practical help while accompanying families through complex systems. This approach recognises that financial hardship is rarely isolated; it is closely linked to mental health challenges, domestic violence, caregiving responsibilities, and unresolved trauma.

Supporting families and caregivers

One of the most pressing realities encountered during 2025 was the strain placed on family caregivers, particularly those supporting people with mental health conditions or disabilities. As community-based care becomes more central to national policy, families are increasingly expected to shoulder responsibilities without adequate recognition or support.

The Foundation's experience shows that caregivers are essential pillars of community care, yet many face emotional exhaustion, financial strain, and burnout. Without structured support - including respite, financial assistance, and access to training - caregivers themselves become vulnerable, risking a cycle of crisis that affects entire households.

Through advocacy and direct engagement, the Foundation continues to call for policies that formally recognise caregivers, provide regular assessments of their needs, and ensure access to practical and emotional support. Sustainable community care cannot exist without safeguarding the wellbeing of those who provide it.

Investing in children and breaking cycles of adversity

Another defining focus of 2025 was responding to the long-term impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Children exposed to domestic violence, neglect, financial instability, or substance abuse face significantly higher risks of mental health difficulties, social exclusion, and poverty in adulthood.

The Foundation's work with both children and adults underscores the long shadow cast by unresolved childhood trauma. Many adults supported today are still grappling with experiences that were never addressed early on. This reality reinforces the urgent need for trauma-informed programmes that intervene early, are accessible, and prioritise prevention rather than crisis response.

Initiatives supporting children and young people - including therapeutic support, safe spaces, mentoring, and skills-building - are more than social services. They are long-term investments in Malta's social and economic future.

Beyond charity: towards systemic change

What distinguishes the Foundation's approach is its commitment to responding to immediate need and to identifying systemic shortcomings and advocating for reform.

The Annual Report highlights the importance of more flexible, tiered social support systems that adapt to changing life circumstances. It advocates for faster, discretionary mechanisms that allow professionals to act in emergencies.

Integrated services that reduce fragmentation across sectors, living-wage frameworks that protect families from persistent hardship, and trauma- informed, prevention-focused policies for children and young people are also highlighted in the report.

These are not abstract policy ideals, but lessons drawn directly from lived experience and frontline practice.

A shared responsibility

As the Foundation reflects on a year of responding to growing need, one message remains clear: poverty and social exclusion cannot be addressed through rigid systems alone. They require listening, flexibility, and a willingness to place human dignity at the centre of policy and practice.

The St Jeanne Antide Foundation stands ready to continue offering its expertise, insights, and collaboration to support those in crisis today and to help shape a more responsive, inclusive, and compassionate social support system for the future.

Real change becomes possible when support systems adapt to people's realities, rather than forcing people to adapt to systems.

Melanie Piscopo is the Executive Director of the St Jeanne Antide Foundation (SJAF), a registered social purpose non-profit organisation. It provides professional support services to very vulnerable people and families facing difficult life circumstances and to those who are sliding into poverty and are socially excluded. SJAF is the social care services arm of the Sisters of Charity of St Jeanne Antide Thouret in Malta.

St Jeanne Antide Foundation (SJAF)are full members of Malta Health Network: www.maltahealthnetwork.org