President McAleese launches ‘Preparing for Life’

A unique early intervention programme which provides services to support parents to ensure that a child is ready for school on a social and emotional level will be launched today by President Mary McAleese at the Darndale and Belcamp Village Centre.

Co-ordinated by the Northside Partnership, the Preparing for Life programme aims to assist parents by offering them additional support during their child’s formative years. The programme will work with local community agencies and will measure the programme’s progress rigorously.

This five year programme follows on from research carried out by the Northside Partnership in 2004 in the Darndale, Belcamp and Moatview areas which revealed that out of 96 children surveyed, approximately half were not ready for school when they entered the educational environment.

Preparing for Life will work with 200 families in the Moatview, Belcamp, Newtown Court and Darndale areas including the Travelling Community over the next five years. Participation is voluntary and we are open to any parents expecting a child regardless of family circumstances.

The Atlantic Philanthropies and Office of the Minister for Children have provided funding for the programme. Commenting at the launch today Noel Kelly, Project Manager of Preparing for Life, underlined his gratitude to the community, the local agencies, UCD’s Geary Institute, Atlantic Philanthropies and the Office of the Minister for Children for all their work in coming together to create a winning formula for the benefit of the community – in particular the children.

Preparing for Life will provide a fundamental insight into the services needed during these key formative years. This stage is an important time in the development of a child and it is important that they are both physically and mentally prepared for entering the school system. Preparing for Life aims to help parents do the best that they can for their children.We hope that this programme will make it easier for parents to bring up healthy, happy children, who are better prepared for school.

About the Northside Partnership

The Northside Partnership is a local development company operating under the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme (LDISP). The Partnership was established in 1991 to tackle the significant unemployment problem that existed in north Dublin. Since its establishment, it has taken on the roles in the areas of Community, Enterprise and Employment Development, as well as education and has focussed its activities on specific target groups who are marginalised in society. The mission of the Northside Partnership is to be driving force in meeting the challenge of social inclusion in its designated area. It proposes to meet this challenge by using a partnership of the community, social partners, statutory and public representative sectors to provide services, influence structures and change policies so that all local people are included in a self-sustaining community that integrates work and economic activity with personal, social and economic needs.