Our Partners
Our collaboration consists of partners from schools and nurseries, community organisations, statutory services and government departments that are working together to find sustainable and innovative solutions for families in East Belfast. Full list of partners here: Partners
Learn more about some of our partners below:
Action Mental Health offer a range of services supporting the mental and emotional well-being of children, parents and families in East Belfast. Through AMH New Life Counselling, AMH MensSana and AMH New Horizons we provide therapeutic services including play therapy and family therapy, prevention and early intervention programmes for children, young people and key contacts in education, youth and community settings, and recovery support for adults.
Belfast City Council want our children and young people to feel safe, happy, empowered and supported at all stages of life. We do this by:
- Working with partners in east Belfast to provide play opportunities, led by our dedicated play team.
- We organise activities and events in our parks, community centres and play centres.
- We provide volunteering opportunities, safeguarding training, and we provide funding for programmes to support children and young people in communities and neighbourhoods.
The Health Visiting Service delivers a universal service to all children in East Belfast supporting, protecting and promoting health and well-being. Health Visiting works collaboratively with others in striving to give all children the best start in life.
The Sure Start SLT Team in Belfast works with each Sure Start Project to support staff and parents to develop loving parent child relationships that are rich in connection and interaction.
The Department of Education (DE) vision is “Every child and young person is happy, learning and succeeding.” DE is responsible for setting policy, strategy and for the central administration of education and related services in Northern Ireland.
East Belfast Sure Start supports children under 4 and their families in eight ward areas in East Belfast. It provides services such as antenatal and postnatal support, child development sessions, family support, speech and language and additional needs support. We are passionate about linking with community. We aim to give children the best possible start in life by providing education on health and on the value of the relationship between the child and the parent. We work with parents at the antenatal stage right through until the child’s transition to nursery education.
EastSide Partnership is a regeneration organisation which aims to ‘making East Belfast a better place’. As a project EastSide Learning does this through strategic coordination, interventions and collaboration with others to improve outcomes for children and families, particularly in the early years. EastSide Learning works alongside the Eastside Early Years Network to improve links across phases, share good practice and improve training and capacity for early year’s practitioners.
Barnardo’s Family Connections service supports families in South and East Belfast. Our aims are to:
- promote family wellbeing and resilience
- build parent confidence and skills
- help children to learn and achieve at school
- strengthen community connectedness.
Nettlefield Nursery is situated between the Ravenhill and Woodstock Road areas of East Belfast. We provide full time places for 52 Pre-school children. The Nursery team are an experienced, enthusiastic and dedicated team of early year practitioners who are passionate about providing the best nursery experience for each child. We value each family and work hard at providing a welcoming school that is a place of safety and inclusion for all. We are proud to be a member of “Schools of Sanctuary” and the Early Learning Community in East Belfast.
NICMA’s purpose is to promote quality home based childcare and learning for the benefit of children, families and communities.
Registered Childminding provides high quality childcare and learning within home-based settings for children aged 0 - 12 years.
Parenting NI support families through their support line, home support, parenting programmes and workshops and providing resources and information on their website.
PlayBoard is the leading charity in Northern Ireland dedicated to the development and promotion of children and young people’s play. Play is an intrinsic aspect of children and young people’s lives and PlayBoard works from the premise that play is fundamental to a healthy and happy childhood.
PlayBoard is a membership-based organisation, all of whom are committed to helping us to achieve our goal of developing quality play opportunities that improve children and young people’s lives across Northern Ireland.
Ravenscroft Nursery School sits in the heart of East Belfast and welcomes children who are in their preschool year. We are a passionate, dedicated, energetic, experienced and dynamic team of professionals. We provide an outstanding quality of education for each and every pupil in a fully Inclusive School Environment. We are proud to support the work of the Early Learning Community in transforming children’s lives throughout East Belfast.
Sandbrook Nursery School is situated in the Sydenham area of East Belfast with places for 52 children aged 3-4 years old. The building is a modern purpose-built Education Authority Nursery School set in unique extensive grounds on Wellwood Avenue
It is the aim of the school to share with parents in the all-round growth and development of their children. The Nursery provides an inclusive environment for all children and families in the community, with the nursery currently working towards Nursery School of Sanctuary Award.
Tor Bank Special School caters for pupils from age 3 to 19. We provide a supportive and empathetic community in which parents, teachers, classroom assistants, therapists, nursing staff and other interested parties share and work in collaboration to design and implement programms to meet the holistic needs of each individual pupil, all of whom have complex learning preferences. The curriculum offered throughout the school is functional, relevant and pupil centred with the ultimate aim of helping each pupil to realise his or her potential successfully. We run a Tor Bank Tots group on a Monday and Friday and offer additional support to our nursery families in the form of home visits, drop in clinics, monthly coffee mornings and monthly parent workshops.
RISE NI (Regional Integrated Support for Education NI) is an early intervention service which supports children in PEAG funded playgroups, mainstream nurseries and schools by working in partnership with parents/ carers and school staff to help children develop the foundation skills for Learning. RISE NI is made up of a range of professionals who are trained to understand areas of child development including:
- social, emotional and behaviour development
- speech, language and communication skills
- gross and fine motor skills
- sensory and visual perception skills
The team delivers training, offers advice and strategies, implements classroom-based and small group programmes and provides integrated support, on a group or individual basis depending on the needs of the child.