basis.point Showcase 2020 lifts the spirits!

Dr. Josephine Bleach, Director, Early Learning Initiative, exploring opportunities for enhanced collaboration with our charity partners.

Shaking off a very long January, basis.point Showcase 2020, provided a welcome lift to the spirits! We are deeply conscious at basis.point, that we are entrusted by our Patrons and Supporters, to deliver educational programmes with maximum positive impact on the lives of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Showcase 2020, brought us once again, the opportunity to explore how best this could be achieved and to share outcomes from ongoing programmes with our wider community. And it didn’t disappoint!

Edel O’Malley, recently appointed CEO of basis.point, set the scene for an afternoon of sharing views, visions and opportunities to create sustainable and scalable initiatives that share the objective of empowering disadvantaged kids to make the most of educational opportunities. Opening the floor Edel challenged “We are all born with talents, but we are not all born with equal opportunities. Our work at basis.point is about collaborating together to level the playing field”

Lisa Martensson, chairing the working strategy session.

Each of our charity partners had the opportunity to share an update on their activities, highlighting successes and areas for further development. This collaborative approach allows for joined up thinking on interventions at key points in the educational lifecycle of children. There followed a working session on strategic planning, chaired by Lisa Martensson, and an exploration of how we could improve outcomes by deepening our cooperation.

The evening offered a valuable opportunity for our Patrons and Supporters to meet with the inspirational educators that are delivering the programmes and to hear first-hand how their multi-annual donations are making a difference.

Speaking on behalf of our educational partner Suas, Betsy Fallon, Vice Principal at Queen of Angels, inspired us with intimate stories from her DEIS primary school, where she is central to delivering the basis.point numeracy programme to a diverse community. She spoke of its’ transformative powers, how participation not only helps with higher academic achievement but also increases confidence, encourages soft social skills such as maintaining eye contact with an adult, and has a notably positive impact on school attendance and parental involvement.

Clive Bellows, Chairperson, basis.point, with Thomas Curtin and Dylan Moloney.

We also had the chance to meet Thomas Curtin and Dylan Moloney, our Foróige NFTE prize winners from 2017, who have been shortlisted to attend the Investment Forum in New York, giving them a great opportunity to seek seed funding. Having heard their story and tried out the product, some of our basis.point community will likely be first in line, once the product comes to market!

Joining us in the evening were also some of our home visitors from ELI, whose tales of the challenges faced by young families with babies and children living in temporary accommodation hubs, cannot but inspire further investment. They’ve developed a wonderful playmat so that the babies have a safe, clean, transportable play area to encourage tummy time and early movement. We have been supporting the Parentchild+ programme for several years now, yet a lot more can be done to support these vulnerable families.

The team from Archways were on-hand to explain their suite of train the trainer programmes where they work with teachers, parents and mentors to improve educational outcomes. They also outlined plans for an exciting new programme, Think Big, which is currently being piloted in The St Lawrence O’Toole National school on Sheriff Street, and is aimed at encouraging 5th and 6th class primary school children with talents outside of the standard curriculum, to reach their potential.

Conor O’Malley, introduces our TUDublin programme.

Our partners TUDublin and Business in the community Ireland are focused on secondary school children and on encouraging them to see their school education as a springboard to further education and career aspirations.

TUDublin were excited with the continued roll out of their junior cycle programme, which aims to demystify 3rd level education through hands on workshops and age appropriate activities on campus.

And Business in the Community Ireland shared with us the positive impact of the mentoring alumni association and were interested in talking to Patron organizations who were open to engage with them on the mentoring programme, particularly in the Cork area.

There is no doubt that by working together in this collaborative fashion, unified by our collective desire to offer opportunities through education, we achieve a greater impact.

Thank you to Matheson for sponsoring the event and for their wonderful hospitality. Thank you also to everyone who joined us on the day. An inspiring evening that will drive us forward to do more.