CDI is one of twelve sites delivering the National Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme. This is a national Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Programme funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), delivered through the Prevention, Partnership and Family Support Programme (PPFS) within Tusla.
The programme invests in effective interventions to improve outcomes for children and families living in areas of disadvantage. The ABC Programme includes delivering evidence-based approaches and enhancing workforce and service capacity in the child and family sector through training and mentoring.
Early experiences can last a lifetime, so antenatal care and early childhood are essential. ABC Programme Background
Between 2007 and 2013, The Atlantic Philanthropies (AP) and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) jointly resourced the Prevention and Early Intervention Programme (PEIP) in three areas: Ballymun, Darndale, and Tallaght. CDI was established to manage and deliver the PEIP in Tallaght. Significant investment was allocated over six years to design, plan, implement and evaluate evidence-informed practice in children’s services to improve learning and well-being outcomes. An extensive research programme was undertaken to gather learning on the processes of implementation and outcomes achieved.
‘Virtually every aspect of early human development, from the brain’s evolving circuitry to the child’s capacity for empathy, is affected by the environments and experiences that are encountered in a cumulative fashion, beginning early in the prenatal period and extending throughout the early childhood years’ (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000).
In 2013, PEIP transitioned to the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme, which was established under a commitment in the Programme for Government to adopt an area-based approach to tackling child poverty and extended with large programmes in nine further communities.
The DCYA and AP funded the ABC Programme between 2013 and 2018 with an investment of €34 million. Since November 2018, the programme has been aligned with Tusla (Prevention, Partnership, and Family Support), with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs funding.
Please click here for a more detailed description of the ABC Programme
ABC Programme Vision
An Ireland where no child is impacted by poverty and all children are supported to reach their full potential.
ABC Programme Mission
Through prevention and early intervention approaches, the Area Based Childhood Programme aims to partner with families, practitioners, communities, and national stakeholders to deliver better outcomes for children and families living in areas where poverty is most deeply entrenched.
ABC Programme Objectives
- Support children at critical stages of their development and wellbeing through key transitions, focusing on pre-birth to six years of age.
- Translate the science of early childhood development and evidence-informed practice into locally appropriate programmes and approaches.
- Mitigate the impact of intergenerational poverty and improve outcomes for children and families.
- Take a progressive universal approach to addressing child poverty.
- Actively support and work in partnership with parents as the primary carers and educators in their children’s lives.
- Enhance the provision of quality prevention and early intervention approaches by developing workforce capacity (education, training, coaching, mentoring and reflection) across children’s services.
- Utilise and enable whole-systems, multi-stage processes to enhance children’s services and practice at local and national level to improve outcomes for children.
- Use monitoring and evaluation systems to inform our practice and measure impact.
- Share the learning and work to embed effective practices in all children’s services.
- Inform policy development at local and national levels where ABC areas are utilised to test, evaluate and disseminate intervention processes and outcomes.
ABC Delivery Approaches
All areas delivering the ABC programme operate at three levels of change:
- Frontline delivery of PEI services for children and families which support early childhood development
- Capacity building, facilitation, and support to other service providers to implement evidence-based ways of working
- Systems change efforts with managers and decision-makers at the local, regional and national levels.
ABC Publications
A Framework for Infant & Early Childhood Mental Health
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Position Paper
Oral Language Services within the Area Based Childhood Programme
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Professional Development
