Welcome to yblive - Winter 09/10
Welcome to this issue of yblive. The months of November, December and January have been full of activity and interest. The highlight was welcoming President McAleese to our A Child Is Born Conference. The President’s presence and her insightful and richly textured keynote address affirmed youngballymun’s focus on the infant, baby, toddler stages of life and the importance of informed and affirming supports to parents.
Focus on Services
In this yblive Winter issue, we focus on Jigsaw-youngballymun (our wellbeing and mental health service to teenagers and young adults), our first Conference - A Child Is Born - and our Infant Mental Health week with Dr. Deborah Weatherston in January 2010.
Jigsaw-youngballymun
Jigsaw-youngballymun was launched by Sylda Langford, the Director of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs just a year ago at our 2009 Christmas celebration. We mark Sylda’s recent retirement in this issue with a reflection from our Chair John Dunne in The Last Word.
One year into the delivery of Jigsaw we bring you up-to-date on a number of angles of the work. In his article Craig Hodges from Headstrong places Jigsaw in the national context of Headstrong’s work around the country. We have perspectives on Wrap Around Facilitation – (WAF) - from Headstrong’s Helen Coughlan and from Angie Birch and the Outfit team in Ballymun Regional Youth Resource. youngballymun’s Catherine McGowan and Ballymun Job Centre’s Lorna Powell fill us in on our youth mental health information and awareness raising lecture series – the Jigsaw Lunchtime Lectures.
Jigsaw-youngballymun is one of youngballymun’s six integrated services working to support learning and wellbeing across the life-cycle and Catherine McGowan reflects in her article Life-Cycle on the significance of our life-cycle approach for work with teenagers and young adults.
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A Child Is Born Conference
Our first Conference on December 10th was a landmark event for youngballymun coming as it did at the midway point of our first five years of work. With the keynote address by President Mary McAleese the conference marked in a very tangible way the progress we have made in focussing on the importance of beginnings for children and for families.
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A Week with Dr. Deborah Weatherston
Following on from the Conference and Masterclasses in December Dr. Deborah Weatherston Director of the Michigan Infant Mental Health Association spent a week in January in Ballymun to inform the development of the infant mental health strand of Ready, Steady, Grow.
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60 Second Bulletins
A quick update from our other services on their activities during the Winter.
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Hightlights
Ready, Steady …. Bye for now … to Ann Stellenberg and welcome to Pat Tobin and Cecilia Forrestal who are job-sharing the Programme Manager post during Ann’s maternity leave.
Community-based services: we have opened two new community bases, one for the delivery of Ready, Steady, Grow and the other a resource base and office shared by the Incredible Years and Write-Minded teams
Evaluation: The Centre for Effective Services hosted The International Network of Child Policy Research Centres Deliberative Workshop on evaluating complex community-based initiatives for children and families on Thursday January 23rd.
youngballymun - A Reflection: Stuart Shanker shares some thoughts from his time with youngballymun
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Out and About
Breege Brehony brings us Incredible Wales, whilst Elaine Fahy stays closer to home with the celebration with the Incredible Parents in the Reco in December.
Duana Quigley and Martina Gannon tell us about the First Steps training programme they have just finished in Cork.
We also get an update from the Jigsaw Learning Network which was hosted in January by youngballymun.
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The Last Word
Appreciation: youngballymun says Thank-You to Sylda Langford.
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2010 will undoubtedly be a year of greater challenge and increased stress both for service providers and for many families. Despite the adverse conditions affecting local community and statutory services, we begin 2010 with our sights and our key partners’ sights firmly set on delivering real and measurable change for the better for every baby and toddler, every child and every young person in Ballymun.
Eleanor McClorey, CE, youngballymun
