From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
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The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has announced the allocation of €409,000 to 25 organisations under the What Works ‘Sharing Knowledge’ Fund. The What Works initiative supports prevention and early intervention services for children and young people and is funded through Dormant Accounts Funding.
The ‘Sharing Knowledge’ Fund builds on the 2021 What Works ‘Learning Together’ Fund to support learning, share knowledge, open peer discussions and develop strong professional relationships.
The aim of the Fund is to support professionals working in children, youth, and family services with their learning requirements, peer interaction, project collaborations and knowledge dissemination. Projects considered focused on organising or accessing relevant learning/training sessions, while putting a strong emphasis on future collaborations between peers and disseminating learning to larger audiences, including networks. All applications were required to have a focus on prevention and early intervention.
The grantee organisations address a range of service needs, including family support, early learning and childcare, education, mental health, parenting support, domestic, sexual and gender based violence services, equality, inclusion and human rights and supporting those with a disability.
Minister O’Gorman said:
“I am delighted to award over €400,000 in funding to a range of promising projects to support professionals working with children and young people in the area of prevention and early intervention. This is funding that will make a real difference to the services being supported. These services and professionals play a vital role in supporting vulnerable children, young people and their families across Ireland.
"I am struck by the quality of the applications received and I know that this funding will provide practical support to services focused on providing high quality prevention and early intervention services. As we know early intervention can help children and young people to develop the skills they need to live happy, healthy and successful lives. It can improve the quality of children's home lives and family relationships, increase educational attainment and support good mental health.”
Minister of State at the Department of Rural and Community Development with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities, Joe O’Brien, added:
“This funding will come as very welcome news to these projects who are doing such vital work on the ground with young people in communities across Ireland. I recently visited one of these projects – Familibase in Ballyfermot- and was privileged to witness first-hand the breadth of services provided and the positive impacts that such early intervention and continuing outreach work can do to support young people and their families. The funding committed will enable projects such as Familibase to further widen their services and, crucially, reach even more young people with the offer of hope and opportunities for support, growth and success.”
The What Works initiative, funded under Dormant Accounts, takes a coordinated approach to enhance capacity, knowledge and quality in prevention and early intervention for children, young people and their families, with a focus on those at risk of developing poor outcomes. At the core of the initiative is a desire to foster persistent curiosity amongst those working to improve the lives of children and young people in Ireland. What Works aims to support key groups working with children, young people and families to know what works, how it works and provide an evidence supported approach to the application of this work.
25 grantees were awarded funding under the 2022 Sharing Knowledge Fund. These projects are listed on the What Works website along with the project description, funding amount and the county/area in which the project is based. If you wish to contact any of these grantees, you can email What Works at whatworks@equality.gov.ie