Preparing for Life Awarded RTE does Comic Relief Grants

Preparing for Life Awarded RTE does Comic Relief Grants

  • Dec, 2020
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Northside Partnership's Preparing for Life programme has been awarded 2 grants from the proceeds raised by RTE does Comic Relief.

672 grants totalling over €5.8 million were awarded to charities all across Ireland from funding raised by RTÉ Does Comic Relief and distributed by The Community Foundation for Ireland today (16th December 2020).

The grants awarded to Preparing for Life are for:

Play Therapy 

The Play Therapy programme in Preparing for Life at Northside Partnership currently provides therapeutic supports for children who have been impacted by substance abuse in the family.  Covid 19 has led to more families contacting the service for support with dealing with the effects of trauma or anxiety and stress due to lockdown.  The RTE Comic Relief Funds will allow Northside Partnership to increase the numbers of children who can access play therapy and also cover the cost of room rental and additional equipment so children can be seen in a safe environment.  This grant will allow Preparing for Life to double the number of children accessing play therapy.

New Technology 

Preparing for Life provides a range of interventions to support parents and children as well as to Early Years Educators in local Early Years sites.  Due to covid 19, many of these interventions are being provided via online platforms.  This grant will allow Preparing for Life to make a capital investment in high quality equipment so it can greatly improve the delivery on online services.  This technology will help in a number of ways:

  • Improve the quality of the online experience and allow for more realistic interaction between parents and team members
  • Allow team members and parents to film interactions with children and support parents to develop positive parenting practices
  • Allow the team to produce high quality training materials for use in the home and in Early Years Education settings.

"While the lockdown has forced the team to move to online delivery, we have found that many parents find the online delivery is highly accessible," according to Niall Sexton, Programme Manager, Preparing for Life. "We expect that we will continue with online delivery for some programmes even when life returns to normal and this equipment will allow us to continue to deliver to families in the home and online into the future."

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