November 2021 North-East Inner City Programme Office UPDATE

2021 Funding:

A further round of funding proposals totaling €68,656 was approved by the NEIC Programme Implementation Board at its meeting held on 27th October 2021. This latest round of approvals brings the total amount to €6.2m of the overall €6.5m allocated by the Government to the North East Inner City Initiative for 2021.

All 2021 projects approved to date are listed under the relevant Sub-Group heading on the attached table Appendix 1. The table will be updated on an ongoing basis as further funding proposals are approved. The projects approved at the October Board
Meeting are as follows:

Sub-Group 2 – Maximising Educational, Training & Employment Opportunities:

Work experience/Flash mentoring Coordinator – €66.906. National College of Ireland
The objective is to continue to build and cement relationships with organisations interested in supporting the 6 NEIC schools and to manage mentoring and placement opportunities across all schools.

The Flash Mentoring Programme will be run for all interested schools (altering it slightly to fit in with the third year curriculum in O’ Connell’s). The programme will continue to facilitate career discussions between employers and 4th year students, with the aim of giving students exposure to a variety of career fields.

Sub Group 6 – Alignment of Services:

YPAR 0-5 Research Proposal to access current and emerging unmet needs of
Early Years (Prenatal – 5 years) Service in Dublin – additional funding €1,750
(bringing the total for this research to €35,850)
The 0-5 Working Group are seeking additional funding for desk research to complete the review of the current antenatal to 5 years services and supports in Dublin’s North East Inner City and resource needs and service capacity deficiencies. This research involves engagement with key stakeholders, focus groups, interviews and surveys. In order to complete this research an additional €1,750 is been sought. The recipient of this funding will be Childhood Development Initiative (CDI Training and Consultancy Service).

NEIC MDT Progress Report 2020-2021
The Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) was set up in October 2020. This team, comprising of an enhanced NEPS service and HSE Speech & Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and and Psychology, provide a 3 tiered model of holistic support to all children (1,800 pupils) in the 10 Primary schools in the North East Inner City (NEIC).

In May 2021 additional funding of €405,777 was sought for the retention of the MDT for a further year from 01/09/2021 to 31/08/2022 was approved by PIB. The MDT offers different levels of support depending on the needs of each child. The MDT
members work with the whole school community, parents/guardians, whole classes, small groups of children and individual children. The tiered model of service, provides for a tailored response depending on the presenting needs. Supports and interventions offered range from individual one to one support for those children with the most intensive needs, to prevention and early intervention for emerging needs.

A recent report was presented to the NEIC Board outlined progress on this project are as follows:

• Since its inception wait times for access to Speech and Language therapist has decreased from August 2020 the wait time was between 52 – 156 weeks. August 2021 sees this wait time reducing from between 6-12 weeks.
• The NEPS service to schools has also been enhanced within their role in the NEIC MDT and referrals to NEPS have increased fivefold over one year; with 27 cases opened in 2019-2020 increasing to 156 cases opened in 2020- 2021.
• This fivefold increase in referrals represents the vastly increased NEPS capacity to work with children and school staff in the NEIC.
• Enhanced NEPS capacity under the NEIC MDT Pilot Project has also facilitated psychologists to engage in interventions for social emotional learning (SEL) and to design and deliver a range of bespoke training for school staff in response to identified needs.
• The MDT work collaboratively with other in-school services such as Home School Community Liaison, School Completion and the City Connects Coordinators. We also liaise with our community partners such as CAMHS, Meitheal and Young People at Risk (YPAR) to maximize wrap around supports for children, their schools and families.

NEIC Website: https://www.neic.ie
NEIC Website has been re-vamped while maintaining all the previous information relating to the NEIC additional information and new content has been included. The revamp includes new videos and all up to date event information in the NEIC.

The Big Scream 2021: Dublin’s NEIC Halloween Community Festival 24th – 31st October 2021:

Halloween Activities have been ongoing since the beginning of October with 31 Screams and daily prizes. The Big Scream Festival kicked off 8 days of programming with over 40 events in Mountjoy Square Park on 24/10/21.

The Festival was officially launched by Dracula and the NEIC own Olympians Emmet Brennan and Kellie Harrington. Mountjoy Square Park hosted many events including Doggie Dress Up Contest & Pimp your Pumpkin.