Launch of Big Dreams, a family book about reading

youngballymun is a complex community change initiative that is working to improve the learning and well-being outcomes for all children and young people in Ballymun.  Adopting a life-cycle approach from pregnancy and infancy and right through to early adulthood, youngballymun supports the integration of evidence-based practice into existing statutory and community sector services.  The Write Minded strand of the youngballymun programme focuses on improving language and literacy levels of children, a core part of improving learning and well-being outcomes.  Write Minded works closely with local teachers and other school staff to build capacity for literacy teaching and increase time and focus on literacy in the classroom. 

We also know that children spend most of their time outside of school and to improve literacy outcomes, we know we need to increase time and focus on literacy in family and community settings too.   Lána McCarthy is Write Minded’s Family and Community Literacy Development Officer and leads the family and community literacy work.   Her role is all about getting the message out about the importance of language and literacy and providing support to parents to encourage reading, writing, speaking and listening with their children.

To provide a tool in supporting parents to read to their children, Lána developed Big Dreams, a family book about reading which was launched on Wednesday 25^th May.  The book provides helpful tips for encouraging the development of children’s literacy in an attractive and accessible way and it features beautiful pictures of Ballymun parents reading with their children.  As Lána said, “Parents in Ballymun have great expectations for their children. Parents in Ballymun have Big Dreams for their children.”

Language and literacy are the basic building blocks to our children’s expression of themselves, their ability to communicate and build relationships with others. Whilst school and community projects have a very big part to play in teaching and supporting literacy development we know that parents are their child’s first teacher and are fundamental in building that foundation for their children and supporting their learning journey as they grow up.

Parents in Ballymun do fantastic work to support their children’s reading, writing and talking. There is huge enthusiasm and excitement around reading and that is made very clear by huge numbers of parents who participate in youngballymun language and literacy initiatives like Breakfast Buddies, Story Sacks, Story Time and the Incredible Book Club.  There is strong determination amongst parents to give their children all the support they can to reach their full potential.  youngballymun is privileged to work with such great families and we share their vision of the best possible future for the children of Ballymun.

We hope that the Big Dreams book is a further tool to support parents in their role as the most important person in their children’s lives.

Youngballymun is an Atlantic grantee.

For more information:

www.youngballymun.org

Listen to ‘Literacy drive in Ballymun’ on RTE.ie Radio (first broadcast on 31 MAY 2011) >>