Written answers

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

Department of Children and Youth Affairs

Area Based Childhood Programme

Photo of Denise MitchellDenise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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629. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the funding status for a project (details supplied). [3208/17]

Photo of Katherine ZapponeKatherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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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: Preparing for Life Programme, Youngballymun, and the Childhood Development Initiative Tallaght. Youngballymun received €15m as a participant in the Prevention and Early Intervention programme. The total original funding for Youngballymun under the ABC programme was €5m bringing the total funding received by Youngballymun under both programmes to €20m.

Owing to their earlier transition into the ABC programme, Youngballymun and the other two sites were contracted to deliver services in their areas until mid-2016. In July of 2016, my Department and co-funder The Atlantic Philanthropies furnished additional funding to Youngballymun of €500,000 to enable the organisation to extend its service provision for a further year, to end July 2017 bringing their total budget under the ABC Programme to €5.5m.

My Department is currently working with ABC programme managers to identify the full running costs for each site to end December 2017 with a view to ensuring all sites are extended to end 2017. My Department also anticipate seeking additional funding in the 2017 estimates process to meet the Programme for Government commitments and ensure findings from the ABC Programme Evaluation can be fully considered in meeting those commitments.

I look forward to the continued engagement of Youngballymun, and all other ABC sites with my Department as we work towards the implementation of quality prevention and early intervention initiatives in order to achieve our shared goal of improving the lives of children and families throughout the country.

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