basis.point pass the €3million grants threshold
Clive Bellows, Chairperson basis.point with participants of the Foróige NFTE programme funded by basis.point.
An important milestone has been reached, worthy of celebrating in any book. Thanks to industry wide generosity, and an overwhelmingly positive response to our new Patron tiering, over €3 million has been raised and committed to educational programmes that will transform the lives of countless children throughout Ireland.
The concept of an industry uniting behind one single cause – educational disadvantage was first mooted in 2013.
Our first grant of €43,000 was awarded in 2014 to Archways for their Incredible Years Programme. In it’s infancy in Ireland, basis.point provided early seed funding. An early intervention programme for children aged 4-8, the programme has subsequently been adopted by the Department of Education for DEIS Band 1 schools. We continue to fund it’s rollout amongst DEIS Band 2 schools and other non designated schools.
We have come a long way since then. Under the current stewardship of Teddy Otto, Principal at Carne Group, the disbursements committee have recently awarded a fresh round of grants bringing the total committed to exceed €3 million.
Further expanding our reach, we welcome Teen Turn to our portfolio of educational partners, helping girls from disadvantaged or underserved communities explore STEM related careers.
We are committed to expanding our portfolio of educational programmes and have been actively seeking out programmes that serve marginalised and underserved communities such as young people in emergency accommodation, refuge and direct provision nationwide.
Casting an eye over how the €3million in funding breaks down. Over 46% of our funding has been targeted at empowering parents to give their child the best start in life. This is intentional. The importance of pre-school learning and early years development cannot be understated. The average child from an educated background starts school with a vocabulary of approximately 1200 words.
For children from low income and disadvantaged backgrounds, this can be as low as 400. The gap is immense and unless tackled early, without intervention these children never catch up and have poor educational outcomes.
Over the past 6 years, we have committed over €1.4 million, working with Archways and The Early Learning Initiative towards levelling the playing field for young children aged 2 to 8 across Ireland.
The second largest tranche of funding, over €925,000 (30%), has been allocated towards enabling children themselves to engage with education, building confidence, self esteem and a desire to remain in education.
Children aged between 8 and 15 are at great risk of disengaging. In partnership with Archways, SUAS and TUDublin, we both build the competencies necessary for active participation and present third level as a realistic goal.
Enhancing opportunities for teenagers and young adults is an area that we are further developing. Current funding of over €500,000 (17%), appears relatively underrepresented. The recent addition of Teen Turn to our portfolio goes some way to addressing this imbalance and we will continue to do more towards opening doors and unlocking potential for these young adults, working with Foróige, Business in the Community and Teen Turn over the coming years.
Once we include the €200,000 (7%) that was raised in response to the basis.point and Irish Funds Emergency Appeal and subsequently disbursed to nine charities working with the acute needs of our most vulnerable communities, we surpass the threshold of €3million.
According to the Poverty Ireland 2021, around 190,000 children live in households experiencing poverty resulting in poor educational outcomes.
€3 million allocated and committed is indeed a milestone. Thanks to this remarkable industry wide collaboration, these programmes continue to have a transformative impact on children’s lives.
Let’s draw inspiration from these kids. Aspire high. We can do more!
