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Children & Youth Prevention & Early Intervention

An Early Start Toward a Lifetime of Opportunities

Northern Ireland | Republic of Ireland | 2004 - 2014

Atlantic’s desire to help young people grow and flourish led to one of the foundation’s signature initiatives in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland focused on prevention and early intervention. Over 10 years, Atlantic invested more than $200 million to make programs available that were shown to be effective at providing the support children and young people need to be healthy, do well in school and to help ensure that they have bright futures. Through some 39 interventions and 52 evidence-based services that Atlantic supported, grantees reached an estimated 90,000 children and young people, 23,000 parents and caregivers, and 4,000 professionals.

Watch: The impact of the Incredible Years programme on students, parents and teachers at the Drogheda School in Drogheda, Ireland is highlighted in this 2 September 2009 report by RTE reporter Joan O'Sullivan.

What We Learned From This Work

  1. Supporting parents pays real dividends in terms of better outcomes for children.

  2. Evidence can be a powerful engine for advancing change when practitioners are given robust tools or support to apply it in their work.

  3. Building partnerships with government, NGOs and communities from the start can lead to better and more sustainable outcomes.

From Developing Evidence of What Works to Informing Policy and Practice

Here's some examples of how grantees delivered benefits to young people while demonstrating the value of early intervention & prevention.

Improved Outcomes for Children

Archway’s Families First programme proved successful in delivering a cost-effective way of supporting young people at risk of becoming entangled in the juvenile justice system.

Fostering Information Sharing

Atlantic supported the formation of the Centre for Effective Services to help support policy makers and organisations with effective implementation of children’s services.

Securing Government Buy-In

Early Intervention Transformation Programme is embedding early intervention across Northern Ireland.

Latest Research and Best Practices

Visit the Centre for Effective Services to access the latest prevention & early intervention research and best practices.

Summaries of Case Studies, Evaluations & Reports

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