Applying brand aid

Seventeen-year old Joanne Bradley didn't think she'd be able to go back to school after the birth of her daughter last year. "I was thinking I'd get a cleaning job or something. My mam has a young kid of her own, so it would have been too much for her to look after Mekele all day as well."

Sitting in the bright front room of St Mary's City Quay Creche, over-looking Dublin's quays, the sunny young woman smiles as she describes hearing of plans for the crΦche, late last year.

"She was seven months," she says, looking over at Mekele, who is looking back from a crawling mat in the centre of the room. "I think I just heard about it from people talking round the flats and that, and I came down and put her name down for it. I was one of the first to register, so there was no problem getting her in."

Bradley, who is from the nearby Pearse House flats in Dublin's south inner city, says she was not "into school much", that she was suspended several times and that, like many her age, she had not placed much stock in academic achievement.

She "has responsibilities now", however, and although she would have been able to get some kind of low-paid work, having Mekele forced her to think about more than just herself. "I want to bring her up right. I don't want to be sitting around, living on £100 a week for the rest of my life."

Mekele joined the crΦche when it opened, in September, the same month her mother went back to school, at Westland Row CBS. The crΦche was opened initially at the instigation of the local Society of St Vincent de Paul, which noted the need for such a facility, according to the manager, Caroline Tierney.

"A lot of the mothers around here are on their own, and unless they had a mother or a friend to look after their children, they couldn't go back to work after having kids, or get training."

Bradley pays £40 a week to leave Mekele at the crΦche from 8.45 a.m. until 5.30 p.m. The 22 children get breakfast every day, as well as a hot snack in the afternoon. The parents provide a packed lunch.

Heavily subsidised by St Vincent de Paul and Area Development Management, a company set up by the government in 1992 to counter disadvantage, the crΦche is strictly for parish residents, who are means-tested. Most are drawn from the Markievicz House and Pearse House flats.

It is no secret that many of the area's long-term residents have weathered familiar difficulties associated with inner-city public-authority housing: high unemployment, drug and alcohol problems, family breakdown and an almost intractable level of social exclusion. An environment repeated throughout the State, it continues to be among the most devastating for children to grow in - and the most difficult to break free of.

In this context, facilities such as St Mary's, which offer not only a safe, educational and nurturing environment but also a respite for mothers, are both vital and, unfortunately, scarce.

When the crΦche opened, only two months ago, it was with funding from Dublin Corporation, Area Development Management, St Vincent de Paul, People In Need and, unusually, some might say, a bank.

Allied Irish Banks gave the facility £50,000, under its Better Ireland programme. Up and running for just two months, the scheme has been described by leading charities as visionary and pioneering. They stress the research that has gone into the programme and the fact that all 12,000 of AIB's staff on the island have had an opportunity to say how the bank should be giving away its money.

"We were determined to become more focused in our donating, and wanted to make a real tangible impact," says Jim Kelly, the bank's brand manager.

"We interviewed 12 Government Departments, worked with a wide range of NGOs non-governmental organisations and charities to identify key areas where AIB could make a definite impact. In June, a list of six areas was put to all 12,000 staff, and we asked them to pick three, which the company would support for the next three years."

About half of them responded; overwhelmingly, their top three were drug and alcohol abuse and their effects on children, education and poverty and their effects on children, and child homelessness. The bank will give some £3 million a year to related projects.

There is a downside to this focused approach to corporate giving, says Kelly. "We still get perhaps 15 letters a day from people looking for sponsorship or charity, but unless they fit the criteria we have to say no, and that is hard to explain to people."

Although it is still in its early days, the Better Ireland programme has given out £450,000. Apart from the crΦche, money has gone to LeFroy House, a Dublin residential unit for homeless girls run by the Salvation Army; to 25 family centres run by Barnardos; and to an outdoor play area in Dublin for the children of homeless parents, run by Focus Ireland.

Kelly does not believe that AIB's donations are letting the Government off the hook, funding projects that should be provided by the State.

"That is actually one of the no-nos. We will not do any substitute funding and will not, for example, give any money to schools or hospitals."

The name for this approach to corporate giving, which has been in vogue at Coca-Cola and other companies for some years, is "cause-related marketing". As the term implies, AIB's Better Ireland programme is part of the bank's marketing strategy.

Although Kelly insists there is no commercial return, at one point he says the programme is "a demonstration of our brand value". The bank therefore seems to be hoping that the socially concerned will take a rosier view of AIB than they might of other financial institutions.

Whatever the commercial reasoning behind the scheme, however, those receiving the money are full of praise for AIB's approach.

Caroline Hickson, fund-raising manager with Focus Ireland, supports the view of the programme as visionary. Praising the level of thought behind it, she emphasises the value of involving AIB employees.

"As it grows, the staff will have a sense of ownership of it, and I think it's important to establish a sense of community responsibility, particularly among younger staff."

Deirdre Mortell, Barnardos' director of fund-raising, agrees. "What is impressive is that they have actually researched what the needs are and asked us how best their money can make a difference. They have been utterly professional about it, and want to make a documentable difference. As far as I know, it is the first company in Ireland taking this approach."

One documentable impact of the programme should be the Leaving Certificate that Bradley wants to be holding in two years' time.

"I wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for this place. I wouldn't advise anyone to have a baby at 16, but I want her [Mekele] to look up to me. So, in a way, she's done me good, too."