Home from Home Programme 

The Home from Home Transition Programme is an intensive weekly home visiting programme that provides an integrated plan of intervention and support for families with children aged 16 months onwards. An adaptation of the ParentChild+ programme, its overall aim is to meet the needs of families living under the duress of homelessness or transitional housing, who would not be able to commit to the two-year programme that ParentChild+ offers. To date, it has been delivered in the Docklands and has now extended to 5 more communities around Ireland.  

Home from Home is an innovative, home-based literacy and parenting programme that strengthens families and prepares children to succeed academically. Home Visitors model oral language, reading and play in their weekly visits over a 12-week period. The families then continue the activities in their own time, thereby enabling the child and their siblings to develop their language, literacy and numeracy skills. Home visits occurring once per week for an hour over a twelve-week period is a feasible commitment for families experiencing homelessness who usually have many other appointments and obligations.   

Key Elements:  

o Engages parents and children in a weekly home visit for a 12-week period      

o Emphasis on the most developmentally appropriate books and toys for the child     

o Models positive parent-child interactions     

o Instils the educational value from the books and toys provided during the home visit     

o Improves educational outcomes for children living in homelessness or transitional housing     

o Links with other community professionals to create wrap-around support for families

Collaborations with statutory and voluntary organisations with experience and knowledge in the area of homelessness are important elements of this programme.  These include Focus Ireland, Crosscare, Peter McVerry Trust, The Homeless Agency (Park Gate Hall), Túsla, the HSE, in particular, the Public Health Nurses and Speech and Language Therapists. Relationships are also developed with staff working in the Homeless and IPAS Hubs. Linking with these organisations has increased ELI’s knowledge and skills in delivering services to those who are experiencing homelessness and increased our capacity to reach families in these settings. 

We now employ Home Visitors who come from the same backgrounds and cultures as many of the families, this ensures the families integrate better into the programme and their surrounding community. We pass on this knowledge to other sites around Ireland that have taken on Home From Home and collaborate with them to ensure all families no matter where they live receive a quality service and the support they need to succeed in Irish society. 

For further information, please contact: Annabel Habart 

Email annabel.habart@ncirl.ie

Tel:  (086) 0829662