Plan to help young families
A PLAN to help children, young people and families of all background and abilities to realise their full potential through providing equal opportunities has been launched by South Dublin County Partnership (SDCP).
The Children and Families Strategy 2023 – 2025 was launched in Balgaddy Children and Family Centre with 30 transition year students taking part in a Hackathon to get it off the ground.
There are three main objectives to the strategy.
The first is to enable positive parenting by empowering and offering necessary supports while the second is to provide creative, nurturing and stimulating environments for children with a focus on prevention and early intervention.
The third objective is to “develop our organisational capacity to meet the needs of our community”.
According to the plan, there are 300,000 people living in South Dublin County, with many parents in the county “parenting alone”.
Part of the aim is for SDCP to develop and deliver projects to tackle poverty and social exclusion in disadvantaged areas.
SDCP is targeting areas of deprivation across the county, of which they have identified eight – Cappaghmore, Rowlagh and Moorfield in Clondalkin, St James in Terenure, and Tymon, Avonbeg, Killinarden and Fettercairn in Tallaght.
Using data collected from the 2016 Census, there is a population of just under 34,500 in these eight disadvantaged areas.
The action plan section of the strategy is to continue delivering evidence-based programmes, investigate new ideas, respond to emergencies, and use SDCP networks to identify emerging needs and issue appropriate responses.
SDCP provides a swathe of different projects, some of which were involved in the launch last Friday.
Inspiring the Future students, which introduces students to the world of work by inviting professional to speak with students from Tallaght and Clondalkin, took part in the Hackathon.
A new programme called Let’s Get Digital, which aims to improve learners digital health and consider careers in tech by participating in Microsoft’s StepIn2Tech online programme, was on display through one of its mentors working with the students on the day.
A family learning coding programme, and a new addition called We CAN Code coding group for children with additional needs, is also held in Balgaddy Children and Family Centre.
While the initiatives on display were a snapshot of the work being done by SDCP staff under the Children and Families thematic, the new strategy which was launched by Mayor Emma Murphy makes a commitment to continue all the different projects through to 2025.
