About

Community Families is not a new Programme. It originated from the Community Mothers Programme (Johnson, Howell, Molloy, 1993). It started in the greater Dublin area in 1983 and has since gained international recognition. The Programme grew and was delivered in locations across Ireland in slightly different ways.

Initially, it was a volunteer peer-to-peer Programme. It is now delivered by trained, local Home Visitors or Community Mothers employed by Community and Voluntary Organisations or the Health Service Executive (HSE).

Arising from concerns about the Programme’s sustainability following the closure of 9 out of the 11 original locations, the Katharine Howard Foundation commissioned a review of the Programme in Ireland in 2017.

The Review outlined considerable similarities in the delivery of the Programme across Ireland with some differences in governance, funding, and whether Home Visitors were paid or volunteers.

Parents noted the unique value of the Programme to their lives, and this was the same across the country. It was clear that it was a Programme that provided Parents with non-judgemental support at a crucial time in their parenting journey.

Given these findings, it was recommended that a standardised approach to delivering the Programme in Ireland should be developed. Recommendations outlined the need for a national support structure that incorporated the two primary commissioning/funding partners to provide a sustainable future for the Programme.

In 2019, a consortium of organisations successfully secured Sláintecare Integration Funding to support the development of a national standardised model of delivery for the Community Mothers Programme. This initiative, the Community Mothers Programme Development Project, was governed by an Oversight Group comprising the HSE, Tusla, the Katharine Howard Foundation and the National College of Ireland.

From March 2020 to December 2021, considerable work grounded in co-production and consultation resulted in the development of the Community Families Programme.

The move to fully implement  Community Families in the existing 7 sites and to roll out Community Families to other parts of the country is now underway. A new governance structure co-chaired by the HSE and Tusla commenced work in March 2022 and by 2024 the following has been achieved:

• A New Training Programme for all Community Families Coordinators and Home Visitors
• New resources and a manual to guide the work of all Home Visitors
• Developing a way to collect information collaboratively with Parents to help everyone reflect on how to support the best outcomes for all Children, Parents, Families and Communities and roll out of the new CRM across 6 of the 7 existing sites
• Building capacity and resources so that existing Programme sites can deliver the Community Families model and new sites can be established
• Launch of the National Community Families Programme in October 2024
• Working collaboratively to ensure new Community Family sites are supported with roll out