September 2014: After our first project meeting with The Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) we arrived back at our offices in Dublin City Centre armed with a 484 page long programme manual and a brief to make an online literacy learning support tool for senior infants. Well, it’s a good job we like a […]
CDI Wins Communications Award
The Tallaght based Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) has won a top award for its communications at this years Public Relations Institute of Ireland industry awards. CDI received its Award from An Taoiseach Enda Kenny at a gala awards ceremony. CDI, working together with the agency Cavanagh Communications, won the title of Best Corporate Communication in […]
Limerick Kids Graduate with Improved Literacy Skills
July 6, 2014: 90 kids from Limerick today celebrated improved literacy skills after completing an intensive early years intervention programme. The children worked hard since last September completing three hour-and-a-half long after-school sessions each week, as part of the Doodle Den programme which took place in six Primary Schools in Limerick city. The Senior Infants […]
Report says early intervention makes economic and moral sense
July 6, 2014: Greater use of approaches which prevent or tackle social problems early will save money and result in better outcomes for more young people and families, a network of 24 organisations has stated. Launching a report by Independent Social Researcher Brian Harvey, the Prevention and Early Intervention Network (PEIN) said that both Irish […]
Childhood Development Initiative launched as Restorative Organisation
June 27, 2014: The Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) was launched as a ‘restorative organisation’ at its annual summer barbecue. This means that all CDI staff have been trained, its HR policies and way of working all reflect the principles of Restorative Practice. Restorative Practice involves training people in skills of communicating with each other that are […]
Connecting Community Development Work and Teaching
June 2014: The publication of the Transforming Educational Experience report – which is a joint initiative between CDI and the National University of Ireland Maynooth – provides clear evidence that teachers are joining the dots in a way that has real impact on the lives of our children and young people. In this report we […]
Three Restorative Primary Schools Launched in Tallaght West
May 30, 2014: Three Primary Schools in Tallaght West – Scoil Cnoc Mhuire Junior & Senior and Scoil Chaitlín Maude – have been launched as ‘Restorative Schools’. The Mayor of South Dublin County Council Dermot Looney raised a flag to mark their achievements. In doing so, these are among the first Primary Schools in the […]
Call for greater role for research and evidence in child and community services
April 3, 2014: Research and evidence should play a much greater role in informing planning and funding decisions about services for children, families and communities – according to a new report. The report Leading Community Change: Delivering Better Outcomes in an Irish Community strongly recommends that child and community services be incentivised to re-align delivery […]
Obesity 9% lower in schools with targeted health programme
February 24, 2014: Childhood obesity has been found to be 9% lower in schools which took part in a targeted health programme in Tallaght. A study carried out by Trinity College Dublin found that 16% of children in schools which had taken part in a Healthy Schools Programme were obese compared to 25% in comparable control […]
Working with you to find out what works: Conducting RCTs in community settings
February 2014: Over the past 6 years the Centre for Effective Education (CEE) at Queen’s University Belfast has been developing expertise in the use of randomised control trials (RCT) in the evaluation of educational programmes. As you may be aware the CEE evaluated two programmes using this methodology for CDI in Tallaght called – Doodle Den and Mate […]