Top
2025 JP McManus Benevolent call out to Limerick and Clare
Bottom

2025 JP McManus Benevolent call out to Limerick and Clare

 

Calling all services for families in Limerick and Clare in 2025 who support parents of children and young people who have additional support needs

The JP McManus Benevolent Fund and Parents Plus Charity are offering sponsorship for free facilitator training places to professionals providing services to children, adolescents, and young adults with additional support needs in Counties Limerick and Clare. This  sponsorship opportunity will also include materials in 2025.

The JP McManus Benevolent Fund will sponsor the training and post-training supervision of professionals in two of the flagship Parents Plus evidence-based programmes, the Parents Plus Early Years Programme (PPEY) and the Parents Plus Special Needs Programme (PPSN), described in greater detail below. The funding will provide an opportunity to practitioners and services that offer support to parents of children and young people who have additional support needs across the child, adolescent and young adult age ranges.  Charities, community services and family resource centres can choose to train a number of team members in the Special Needs and/or the Early Years Programme.  For example, this may involve training 2 – 3 team members in both programmes.

This sponsorship opportunity is open to professionals and parent volunteers in Co Limerick or Co Clare.  These professionals or parent volunteers must be working with, supporting, or volunteering with families of children or  young people who have additional support needs. 

Applications for sponsorship are invited from professionals and parent volunteers, including the following agencies: 

  • Family Resource Centre staff who work with parents of young people who have additional needs
  • Parent volunteers in family support roles who may have lived experience raising a child who has additional needs
  • Staff or parent volunteers from community organisations or charities who support families of children who have additional needs, and 
  • Primary Care professionals who support families of children with additional needs. 

We are encouraging collaborations across local agencies to provide the programmes (depending on age group) to families in need of this support.  This could involve, for example, a professional from a Primary Care Team working with a community family support service or parent peer-support organisation to run either a Parents Plus Special Needs or Early Years Programme.

Please contact Parents Plus Disability Programmes Lead, Ciara Ni Raghallaigh, at Parents Plus, if you have any further queries about this initiative or would like to discuss your application further. ciaranir@parentsplus.ie 

The agencies participating will agree to take part in the associated evaluation of the programmes being conducted by Parents Plus Charity. 

Parents Plus Early Years Programme (PPEY) 

The PPEY Programme can be delivered as a group-based parenting programme or on a 1:1 with parents/guardians who may require additional coaching from a trained facilitator.  Parents Plus launched the new Core delivery of the PPEY Programme in November 2023. The facilitator training will equip facilitators to deliver PPEY content with parents in a group and/or 1:1 format with families of children who have additional support needs. The focus of the PPEY is to help families build positive relationships focusing on communication, play and good daily routines. It’s a holistic family intervention and has a unique video feedback component that coaches parents to develop their skills. Parents and guardians of children up to 9 years of age who have additional support needs will benefit from accessing a Parents Plus Early Years Programme. 

The Early Years Programme will provide parents/guardians/carers of younger children with valuable information and strategies to: 

  • Build their children’s communication & support their learning and development
  • Develop good attachments and relationships
  • Positively manage tantrums and behaviours of concern
  • Reduce their own stress as parents
  • Build their children’s self-esteem
  • Establish positive daily routines

Accessing peer support from other parents and problem-solving in the group are key components to empower parents to build on their own strengths and coping capacities. There are flexible options for delivery -as an 8 -12 week parent programme consisting of group and individual sessions, as an individual intervention tailored to the needs of each family or as a group only delivery. By taking part in the PPEY training you will gain skills as a facilitator in: 

  • How to use a strengths-based and solution-focused approach to support parents
  • Deliver individual video sessions to parents so as to tailor the intervention to the needs of    specific families 
  • Facilitate a supportive group programme so that parents find solutions that work for their

own family and build their network of support 

For this roll-out the training provided in the PPEY will have a disability focus and facilitators will be supported to deliver the programme content suitable to the families they work with (relevant programme videos, using the video feedback model) and to invest time in screening parents in advance of the programme to get the group composition right. The PPEY Programme can also be delivered on a 1:1 with parents who for whatever reason are not ready for a group programme. 

Parents Plus Special Needs Programme (PPSN)

The PPSN is a parenting support programme for parents/guardians of adolescents and young adults, 11-25 years, with an intellectual disability. The Parents Plus Special Needs Programme (PPSN) is run with at least 7 weekly sessions. The programme also involves a follow-up group support session two or three months after the 7 week core programme is completed. It was developed to respond to the complex needs of young people with an intellectual disability and their families. It consists of group sessions delivered to support parents to:

– Manage behaviour and emotional problems 

– Deal with puberty, sexuality and relationships 

– Reduce their own stress as parents 

– Support their child’s education 

– Prepare their young person for adulthood and future transitions 

The facilitator training will be delivered over 4 modules on Zoom from 9am to 1pm. It is practical and solution-focused and will ensure you get an in-depth understanding of the programme content, skills in delivering the programme whether you run face-to-face or online sessions with families. 

The Parents Plus Special Needs Programme (PPSN) is the first international, evidence-based parenting programme with proven benefits for families with an adolescent with an intellectual disability. A Randomised Controlled Trial (2019/20) with TCD Psychology Department, reported significant improvements in problem behaviours, parental satisfaction and self-efficacy, and goal attainment.  

Note: The PPSN topics are also relevant for parents of younger children who have a severe intellectual disability and complex needs and it can be delivered with these families as a group programme by trained facilitators. 

Further information on PPSN and PPEY, their impact for children, young people, parents and families, and PPSN Randomised Controlled Trial results are available on the Parents Plus website www.parentsplus.ie/research

Apply for this sponsorship opportunity  

If you would like to apply for a JP McManus Benevolent funded place on this project, please complete the following Application Form and submit it via email to Ciara Ni Raghallaigh at ciaranir@parentsplus.ie

Please note that as part of this sponsorship opportunity services will agree to take part in an evaluation of the impact of the programme for families being conducted by Parents Plus Charity.

Included in the sponsorship opportunity 

  • Programme Training modules (PPEY 5 Modules; PPSN 4 Modules)
  • Facilitator Manual and first set of parent books for your parent programme
  • Post-training implementation support and coaching

Please feel free to pass on this sponsorship opportunity to your colleagues or parent-led groups in Co Limerick and Co Clare.  If your colleagues or parent volunteers support parents/guardians/carers  of children and young people who have additional support needs they can apply for this sponsorship. Further information on PPSN and PPEY, their impact for children, young people, parents and families, and PPSN Randomised Controlled Trial results are available on the Parents Plus website www.parentsplus.ie/research