City Connects is in its third year of operations in Ireland, where it’s running in Dublin’s North East Inner City (NEIC), an area with high concentrations of students who live in poverty.
Since then, the program has brought new services, supports, and enrichment programs to students. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at what has been accomplished, drawn from NEIC’s 2022 Progress Report.
• 1,604 students
• in 10 schools
• received a total of 7,749 referrals.
• 90 community agencies provided services and enrichments.
• The Multi-Disciplinary Team made 437 referrals that led to “1,055 intervention sessions delivered in Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and psychology. These direct referrals have reduced waiting times for these children to receive the supports they need.”
• Students receive support in four key areas: literacy, math, youth development, and social skills.
• Students participated in nearly a dozen sports, including basketball, swimming, “football” (soccer to Americans), tennis, running, and rugby.
• Students also participated in creative writing, dance, drama, and a Lego club sponsored by KPMG.
• And funding was allocated to provide a film-making class to 10 children.
In addition, the Irish government is investing €1.4 million (a little more than $1.5 million) to keep City Connects in Dublin.
“Our objective for 2023 is to build upon the strong results of 2022,” Michael Stone, the Chairperson of the NEIC Programme Implementation Board writes in the Progress Report.
Here at City Connects, we are proud to be part of that work.
City Connects Blog 