Preparing for Life is a programme of Northside Partnership. It is a prevention and early intervention programme, which offers support to families from pregnancy to the time the children start school. Preparing for Life is jointly funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs.

Preparing for Life believes that parents are the primary educators of their children and the focus of our programme is to provide timely and appropriate support to parents, which enable them to achieve better outcomes for themselves and their children.  

 The main activities of the programme are in the areas of effective parenting and promoting high quality child development. By acknowledging the importance of confident parenting in the early years, we aim to encourage greater involvement in early education, and to affirm the role of the parent.  One of the benchmarks of our programme is achieving better levels of school readiness as this is a predictor of success in later years.

Pregnancy and the first few years of a child's life is a very important period when children grow and develop. It is the time when the child's health, happiness and ability to learn are shaped. Positive experiences for parents and children during these early years will lead to improved school readiness, better life chances and heightened aspirations.

The Preparing for Life staff team are committed to making real, long lasting change for the youngest members of the community. We also want to leave a legacy of confident parents who believe in themselves, and are ready to lead in their families and the wider community.

Outside of our direct work with families we also support quality in early years settings through the roll out of the Síolta Framework, promote and support effective interagency working and also actively engage in the promotion of evidence based work with children and families.

Preparing for Life is also involved in;

1. •·         Supporting 10 local early years settings to implement the Síolta Early Years Quality Framework.
2. •·         Delivering free Stress Control courses to the local community
3. •·         Conducting annual surveys on school readiness in the catchment area
4. •·        Working alongside other early intervention/prevention sites to develop national networks and promote early intervention and  prevention
5. •·        Promoting and supporting interagency co-operation to create better outcomes for families.
6. •·         Promoting public health messages

E

Programme Evaluation 

Preparing for Life  is being rigorously evaluated by the Geary Institute, UCD using a number of research methods including a random control trial, process evaluation and school readiness research.

Please visit our website for more information and resources. www.preparingforlife.ie or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .