Young Knocknaheeny And so?

The background I grew up in Dublin, and went to school in the North Inner City, then, as now, one of the poorest parts of Ireland. Many of the kids my age, who lived beside my school, died in the first heroin epidemic of the ‘70s. The areas in Dublin that were poor then, in the Sixties, are still poor. The poverty is not quite the same, but it’s still very real.

The background This is the place John Lonergan meant, when he said that he could drive around the streets, and see his future customers, standing at street corners

The background This is the place John Lonergan meant, when he said that he could drive around the streets, and see his future customers, standing at street corners He was a notably far-sighted governor of Mountjoy

The Problem Moderate levels of childhood poverty (Due to sustained social security payments) High levels of young people not in education, training or unemployment Low skills, low wages, for too many people Limited educational opportunities for too many people

Child Poverty 2013

Child Poverty (UNICEF) 2013

Children in Deprived Households (UNICEF 2013)

NEET’s 15-29 2012

Change 2007-12

Unemployment

Life long learning

The cost The high levels of poverty impose major costs on society These include lost productivity, costs of social supports, costs of the criminal justice system, and costs of long term care, be that in prison, a homeless service, or a health care facility. There is abundant evidence that social inequality is very bad for society, and also, very bad for politics, as we may see tomorrow in the US.

Some answers Education, of high quality Supporting people to access opportunities Equity, not equality

Equity, not Equality “Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire.”

Some answers Education, of high quality Supporting people to access opportunities Equity, not equality Community led work

Evaluation Evaluation is relatively new in the Irish public service, but it’s catching on We now have a whole set of evaluations of programs intended to improve the lives of children and young adults in poorer communities Some of which worked And so?

A diversion I led a project on future needs in child health research, funded by the EU The biggest need was work on implementation How do we take the program that worked over there, and make it work here? A fair, and seriously under studied, question.

Pilot studies and evaluations Ireland is littered with pilot studies, quite a few properly evaluated, and shown to work, which have never become national policy Des O’Neill, the geriatrican, talks of ‘implementation deficit disorder’, and quotes Joyce, who argued that there was a paralysis of the will affecting the Irish

Time to change? Pilot studies and evaluations Ireland is littered with pilot studies, quite a few properly evaluated, and shown to work, which have never become national policy Des O’Neill, the geriatrican, talks of ‘implementation deficit disorder’, and quotes Joyce, who spoke of a paralysis of the will affecting us Time to change?

References UNICEF Office of Research. 2016. Fairness for Children: A League Table of Inequality in Child Well-Being in Rich Countries. Innocenti Report Card 13. Innocenti, Florence : UNICEF Office of Research. OECD Data online Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. 2016. ‘Lifelong Learning Participation Amongst Adults in Ireland’. Dublin, Ireland: Solas.