Who We Are

Our Vision

We are inspired by a vision of love, care, and support.

We provide the education and life skills necessary to provide a sound foundation for young people to complete of the education cycle. Our programmes are in place to help every child become aware of their value and of the options available to them in life. We help children to develop as unique individuals and to achieve their potential as human beings.

Who we are & what we do

Aisling Project has operated an After School Service in Ballymun, Dublin since 1997 in a response to the recognised Social Issues in the area of Ballymun. Aisling Project aims to tackle educational disadvantage and encourage improved school participation and completion by targeting children and young people who are at risk of early school leaving. We currently operate five different centres across the whole of Ballymun, catering for over 135 children and young people from the age of 7 to 18 years.

Aisling Project provides a safe and secure environment for all attending children and young people. A hot nutritious dinner is provided to our children and young people each day. Homework support is another core tenant of our work here in Aisling Project and each child and young person is supported, challenged, coaxed and helped to complete their homework to a high standard. The discipline of completing homework is often an alien one to our children and young people but with consistency of approach and the passage of time it becomes second nature. This allows the young student to be far more confident going to school the next morning, and each morning

Aisling project is committed to the goals of educational attainment. We encourage and support every child and young person who attends to realise their potential. As outlined above, homework support is a core tenant of the work of Aisling Project in Ballymun. Children and young people are referred to Aisling Project in 2nd and 3rd class and receive this constant level of support, care and stability until junior Certification(and beyond in some cases) through our Transition Project. This long term intervention works to encourage school attendance and improve academic outcomes using our unconditional positive regard approach for the child and young person in front of us.

During this time feedback from referral agents, in particular local schools, social workers and parents continues to be positive. This is reflected in the high school retention rates and improved school attendance among children and young people in Aisling Project. Also the longevity and consistency of the programme from ages 7 – 18yrs results in positive outcomes for the children and young people in relation to the development of social, group work and communication skills. Each project operates a behavioural and reward based system (stars/points system) which serves to encourage and reinforce positive behaviours among participants.

Aisling project runs a variety of programmes and activities aimed at developing social skills and improving confidence levels. Our summer project runs for 3 weeks in July, supporting parents/guardians through the often difficult summer holiday period Each Aisling Project centre facilitates a residential trip which is a great opportunity for children to have new experience and supports parents/guardians with a period of respite while children are positively cared for. Aisling Project has used the prism of Logic Models for a number of years and have recently included the SCP Logic Model template to further design and evaluate each of our programmes individually.  The Annual Logic Model helps us to look at the short, medium and long term out comes of our programme for the year.

In designing our logic model, Aisling Project were guided by the outcome as defined in the “Better Outcomes, Brighter Future”, the National Policy Framework for Children and Young People (2014-2020) as well as defined SCP outcomes. These include being active and healthy, learning and development, achieving potential, safe from harm, economic security and opportunity, connected, respected and contributing to society.