When the National College of Ireland moved to its new Dublin Docklands ‘campus without walls’ in 2002, part of its remit was to contribute to the regeneration of the area, and from this, the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) was born.
“When Deloitte started with us in 2012, we were already supporting 3,000 people, solely in Dublin Docklands. We're now supporting over 16,000 children in families right across Ireland. If they hadn't supported us, we wouldn't be here,” says ELI Director, Josephine Bleach.
The programme is about prevention and early intervention, and looks to focus on education in the home and in the community. Deloitte have been a partner to this important initiative since 2012.
It was originally introduced to Deloitte by Audit & Assurance partner, Michael Hartwell, who served on the ELI Board and is the current Chair of their Development Committee. Reflecting on the relationship, Hartwell explains, “ELI’s focus on addressing the imbalance in educational opportunities across our society through providing high quality supports and programmes, including home visits, really does have a positive impact on improving the long-term educational outcomes for families and children most in need.”
Hartwell added: “Deloitte believes the work that ELI continues to do in some of our most challenged sections of our community makes a real difference and is something we are compelled to support.”
Bleach explains that “our brief was to address the educational under-attainment in the area and the intergenerational and educational disadvantage that was there. Deloitte support us in a number of important ways that go way beyond just their financial assistance.
“Their help has been invaluable in areas like applying for funds under various schemes. They’re great champions of ELI and Michael Hartwell has been hugely influential in helping us get funding from various sources.
“The volunteering support we get from Deloitte is also extremely important for us. They get involved across a broad spectrum of activities such as skill sharing, robotic coding club, language cafes and much more.
“Another important piece to recognise is the impact on government and on policy. Deloitte have helped us move things like home visits into formal government policy, while concepts like ‘family learning’ are now cropping up in strategic documents, such as the Government’s STEM Education Policy.
“Deloitte help us with major initiatives like preparing a Strategic Plan and support programmes and programme development, such as ELI’s STEM programmes, English as an Additional Language programme, Coding programmes, or our Educational Guidance and Discover University programmes. This helps us evolve to meet the needs of the young people we serve.
“If I had to summarise the impact of Deloitte, their greatest achievement is when we hear parents saying that they’ve learned how to support their children, and that their home has changed because of what they’ve learned from us.”
Bleach finishes by stating that “It takes a village to raise a child, and Deloitte is very, very much central to our village.”
