KWC were thrilled to be awarded the Pathways Early Years fund for 2016/17.  The fund, promoted by Dept Education enables us to work with children with additional needs and to help ensure children get the opportunities required for them to reach their full potential. The project locally operates under the name ‘KINDER’ project.  

In addition to the additional services for local children, the project secured 4 new jobs for the organisation, brrining our childcare team to 8 dedicated staff.  

This investment by the Department of Education, will be the core of our early intervention work.  As a result we have now offered childcare services in the afternoon (initially to 4pm) and sustained the Toddler Summerscheme for July 2016 allowing us to increase the numbers of places and extend to four weeks.  

KWC were delighted to hear that one of our cross community partners, Falls Women’s Centre, was also successful in their application to the fund.  The childcare team have arranged the first cross community Early Years event with lots of projects meeting at Belfast Zoo for a fun packed day together.

Tracy Harrison, Childcare Services Manager is currently working on additional programme support to enhance the Department of Education investment.  In particular, the KWC team are investigating how we can more formally engage on Shared Education programmes, giving a greater contribution to the ‘Together Building a United Community’ (TBUC) government strategy.