The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC)
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) is the national child protection charity. Its range of services include intervention services with individual children and families, child mentoring, parent mentoring and outreach services. Through Childline, it provides a 24-hour listening service for children, via telephone, internet and web-based services. The ISPCC advocates on behalf of children, promotes children’s rights and seeks to effect policy and legislative change to enhance the safety, security and lives of children in Ireland. In order to support this range of activity, the organisation fundraises – in communities, with individual supporters, with corporate partners and online.
The ISPCC works to realise its vision by providing a range of independent and unique services to children and families that are preventative and empowering in nature. It’s empowerment model of supporting young people to build their resilience and coping skills is increasingly recognised as best practice in child protection and welfare support.
Childline is a 24-hour listening service for children throughout Ireland. Children can access the service by phone, online and text, through a form that they are comfortable with. The service receives over 1,000 contacts every day from children wanting to talk about issues such as everyday life, mental health, bullying, abuse, sexuality and homelessness. The demand for the service is prominent. In 2015 Childline answered 421,672 calls to the phone service and 18,304 conversations to its Childline Online service.
Childhood Support Workers
In 2015, the ISPCC’s Childhood Support Service experienced huge demand and worked with 439 individual clients. The service provides a one-toone child-centred service for children and young people in their own home or place of the child’s choosing. 2015 was its twentieth year in operation.
Missing Children’s Hotline
The ISPCC Missing Children’s Hotline provides emotional support and advice to young people and adults alike in relation to missing children. The Missing Children’s hotline operated without any significant changes in 2015, receiving the same volume of calls as the previous year. The number is available to take calls 24 hours a day, every day of the year and is free to the caller.
Mentoring Programme
The ISPCC Mentoring Programme provides mentoring services to parents and young people. The programme aims to create a mentoring relationship between a young person or a parent and a trained adult volunteer, through which support can be provided and new opportunities for growth explored. In 2015 the service celebrated its tenth anniversary.
Outreach Programme
The ISPCC‘s Outreach Programme brings information about the ISPCC’s services to schools and community groups all over Ireland. Through contacts, requests and following on from referrals, ISPCC staff and volunteers attend events to familiarise members of the public with the services provided, and spread awareness of how the services can be accessed by any child or family.
The ISPCC is delighted to partner with Property Race Day 2017 for this year’s event. We would like to thank all the staff for their incredible support.
