Unique project aims to develop services for children

Today, a new ten-year strategy, A Place For Children, aimed at improving the life chances of children in west Tallaght will be…

Today, a new ten-year strategy, A Place For Children, aimed at improving the life chances of children in west Tallaght will be published. It claims to be unlike anything attempted before in Ireland and hopes to succeed where previous strategies have had insufficient impact.

Upwards of 1,000 people are expected to come to a marquee, specially erected on a large green area opposite the public health clinic in Jobstown. Bertie Ahern will give the strategy his blessing and, it is hoped, make a commitment to secure €15 million to fund the first three years.

The Child Development Initiative (CDI) has thus far been funded by Atlantic Philanthropies run by the Irish-American billionaire Chuck Feeney.

Project leader of the CDI, Katherine Zapone, points out the €15 million needed to begin the rollout of the strategy equates to €634 per Tallaght child.

READ MORE

"When you think of the €8,000 that is invested by the Government in all young people who go to university it puts the €634 into perspective. And all the research says that investment in children from an early age has the most effective impact. It will save huge amounts of money in the long-term."

What makes the initiative unique is that it is a collaboration of community leaders, local residents, NGOs such as Barnardos and both local and national government representatives. Zapone says the 10-year strategy will be unlike anything attempted before in Ireland. A consortium of parties has produced eight studies - including the How are our kids? document - into the needs of west Tallaght's children over the past two years, she explains.

"This research and consultation with the children and parents have informed much of the strategy," says Zapone.

"We have applied scientific methods and applied best practice models from around the world and then calculated the investments required with direct reference to the outcomes sought for the children."

The 10 specific outcomes sought by 2016 are:

To help achieve these goals, childhood care and education will be expanded; services such as healthcare and family support will be provided at schools, with schools becoming "focal points for the provision of an integrated set of services for children and families"; new services will be developed each year; training will be provided to improve quality of services already in place; there will be a campaign for better housing and more play facilities; and the whole initiative will be evaluated continually.

What makes the initiative different, says Zapone, is that its continual focus will be on the connections between investment, activities and the specific targets. The 50-page strategy is highly planned, costed and structured. "And the CDI is in it for the long haul," she adds.

"This is a 10-year strategy which will be continually monitored and evaluated. This is not another two-year pilot focusing on one issue. It's holistic, scientific and long-term."

Zapone explains that the CDI will become a legal entity drawing down funds which it will use to commission services such as new childcare places, speech therapists or sports facilities. These services will in the main be provided from within the community and in its work, the CDI will pull relevant Government departments - such as Education, Health, Justice and Social and Family Affairs - South Dublin County Council, An Garda Síochána, NGOs and community leaders together in a way not achieved before, she says.

Francis Chance, assistant director of children's services at Barnardos, believes the long-term nature of the strategy will make it an interesting test of Government policy on tackling childhood disadvantage.

"There have been a lot of good strategies which have been once-off, unintegrated pilot projects. They've been started, have done good work and then the funding has been cancelled. Very little that is innovative has been sustained."

For example, he says, a "very good project" was the Young Families Matter programme set up to provide intensive support to 33 young lone parents and their families in Jobstown in 2002. It was evaluated by the Centre for Social and Educational Research (CSER) in March 2003 and found to have improved the parenting skills of those taking part, to have improved their self-confidence, to have supported their children's socialisation and development needs and to have integrated services well for the participants. But the funding ceased.

"It's one of the numerous examples of pieces of good work that were not followed through on," he says. He also cites the Jobstown Education Transition Strategy, a pilot project which helped young people make the transition from primary to secondary school. It worked well but was cancelled in March 2001.

He is enthusiastic about new strategy, like Zapone stressing the scientific methodology used in drawing it to "address local needs" and saying the challenge to Government will be to embrace long-term concerted planning to address social exclusion and to do so in conjunction with a local non-governmental entity.

The strategy, if it is embraced and supported by Government, will give tremendous hope to the families of west Tallaght, families such as that of Jennifer and Ruairí Nolan.

While one of their four children, Anita (12), says the sound of "robbed cars" wakes her several nights a week and Ruairí, a taxi driver, says his car has been broken into three times in the last year, they say they have lived in Tallaght all their lives and wouldn't leave the "fantastic people" for anywhere else.

They believe the strategy holds real hope of improvements and they were not the only family who spoke last week of the "fantastic community spirit" in the area.

"The Child Development Initiative and the people involved have done fantastic work, though they are doing the Government's job in my view, and that's the truth of it," Jennifer Nolan said.