Strabane Sure Start

Contact
Josephine Doherty
Strabane Sure Start Centre
2 Melmount Road
Strabane
Co. Tyrone
BT82 9SU

Programme Summary

Strabane Sure Start is about giving children a better start in life so that they will achieve well at school and grow up to be happy. Our vision is for the Sure Start project to provide activities that address and meet the social, emotional, physical and educational development of children and their families. The services are friendly, easily accessible, sensitive to the needs of our community as the community will contribute to the programme and will ultimately own it. We want Sure Start to help parents feel confident and in control of their children's lives and their own. It will aim to remove barriers, which prevent parents from getting support in caring for and bringing up their children.

Activities

¨ Improving the ability to learn - through facilities and programmes within the one stop Sure Start Centre and in the community e.g. The Beeches Community Playgroup, The Beeches Community Crèche, Strabane Family Centre, development of a speech and language programme for children, provision of a range of parenting support programmes e.g. Healthy Body, Healthy Mind, First Aid, Cook It. We are setting up a toy library on an outreach basis.

¨ Improving social development - through the provision of outreach and home visiting services e.g. Lifestart, antenatal visits and the recruitment of a Family Support Worker, our Twins Club, our Sure Start Fun days. Our Family Support Worker runs three Parent and Toddler Groups on an outreach basis, excursions e.g. Bananas, the local Fire Station, the Zoo. We have linked in with various statutory and community groups to provide a wide range of training programmes for parents on Behaviour Management.

¨ Improving health - through the preparation of a home accident prevention strategy, the employment of a Strabane Sure Start Health Visitor, the development of a Sure Start Welcome Pack giving information on local services and support networks, our dental programme involving an "adopt a dentist", our healthy living programme, our ante natal visits, our breast feeding group, our First Aid courses. Our Health Visitor runs a post Natal Depression course.

¨ Strengthening families and communities - through establishing a comprehensive monitoring form to identify the needs of families in the area, by actively involving parents in this consultation process, by providing services which meet the needs of parents and the community, by having parents on The Beeches Community Playgroup Management Committee, The Beeches Community Creche Management Committee, Strabane Sure Start Management Committee and by encouraging parents to play an active role our project.