Dessie Ellis
Question:12. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs her plans to address the funding crisis in Youngballymun; and her plans to roll out this model across the State. [14841/16]
View answerThursday, 9 June 2016
Questions (12)
Written answers
The Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme is a joint prevention and early intervention initiative led by my Department and the Atlantic Philanthropies. It is a time bound co-funding arrangement with resources of €29.7m from 2013 to 2017. The aim of the ABC Programme is to test and evaluate prevention and early intervention approaches to improve outcomes for children and families living in poverty in 13 areas of disadvantage.
The ABC programme was preceded by the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) (2007-2013) in which three sites participated: Youngballymun, the Childhood Development Initiative Tallaght and the Preparing for Life Programme, Darndale. Youngballymun received €15m as a participant in the Prevention and Early Intervention programme. The total funding for Youngballymun under the ABC programme is €5m bringing the total funding received by Youngballymun under both programmes to €20m.
The current contract for Youngballymun is due to conclude in July 2016. My aim is to extend the duration of the Youngballymun programme, together with that of two other sites, to July 2017. This will bring them in line with the other 10 ABC sites. To ensure continued provision, my Department and The Atlantic Philanthropies have sanctioned an additional €400k to each of the three original sites. We are seeking to further supplement this base level of funding to each of the three sites, based on the prioritisation of the most effective interventions within their service agreements.
My Department is working to ensure that we take full account of the learning from all the interventions across the 13 ABC sites. This will offer a clear illustration of the interventions that work best, and will inform our plans to embed prevention and early intervention in services for children. The future of any individual project cannot be considered in isolation. Officials are working at a number of levels and through a number of initiatives to capture the learning to further advise me and Government.
I look forward to the continued engagement of Youngballymun with my Department. I want to ensure the implementation of quality prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families in Ballymun and throughout the country.