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Project Name: |
Community Education |
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Zone: |
Belfast East |
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Category: |
Revenue |
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Social Investment Fund Outcome: |
Reducing Deprivation |
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Status: |
Delivery Complete |
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Funding awarded: |
£939,988 |
About the Project
The project aim was to tackle systematic issues linked to educational underachievement in East Belfast by;
- implementing a programme of school and community based supports to facilitate increased levels of parental involvement to support children’s learning needs.
- introducing a step change in the strategic coordination and partnership working ethos of the Belfast East early years, primary, post primary and community sectors with the view of improving education and social outcomes for children in the target areas
The aim of the interventions supported within the programme was to raise the standards of literacy and numeracy, increase transition readiness and educational aspirations, and encourage greater interaction and engagement between parents, children and education system.
Progress to date
This project has completed delivery and has achieved a number of significant legacies for SIF. These include: the establishment of an effective, innovative model for community and schools based support for children’s learning which can be delivered again in East Belfast and across Northern Ireland; contribution to the establishment of new partnerships and collaborations to address children’s learning and the development of new activities and programmes to enhance education in East Belfast; contribution to capacity building/training around numeracy and the establishment of the ‘Hearsay Programme’ which is a school based intervention programme aiming to help Primary 2 children build confidence and contribute to their future learning. Following a successful pilot, another funding stream in the NI Executive Office, recognised the success of the Hearsay Programme and rolled out the programme to a further 28 new schools in January 2020. 11 schools in East Belfast are now delivering the programme on an ongoing basis. Children’s learning needs have been supported and parental involvement has been enabled. One of the key aims of SIF is to address educational underachievement and this project has made a significant contribution to this by enabling significant development of opportunities for shared learning among organisations across the East Belfast and beyond in the field of educational interventions.
Impacts
Monitoring and evaluation of all Social Investment Fund projects is carried out using “Outcomes Based Accountability” (OBA). The infographic below details some of the key impacts of the SIF Community Education project.
