Every year the Lansdowne Club selects a worthy project in Ireland to support via fundraising at the St Patrick’s Day Lunch. These projects are fully vetted and recommended by the Ireland Funds as organisations who are making a difference in their local communities. Listed below are the projects and people the Lansdowne Club has supported over the last 5 years.
Solas Project
Solas provides education and mentoring interventions for young people in disadvantaged communities in Dublin’s south inner city and works to address the imbalances that exist for some children and young adults who are at a socio-economic and/or educational disadvantage. Through learning and mentoring, personal and social development, they support young people to create a brighter future for themselves and their communities in Dublin. The programmes provide young people with opportunities they would otherwise not have to reach their true potential and live fulfilled lives.
In 2018, support from the Lansdowne Club helped Solas to expand a pilot programme with 6th class girls called “Shine” in preparation for transition to secondary school.
Soar Ireland
Inspired by the work of Irishman Jim Stynes and The Reach Foundation in Melbourne, Soar is a collective movement which believes that there is greatness within all young people. Soar act on this by creating and delivering early intervention-preventative, wellness workshops for young people aged 12 to 18 years from all backgrounds. Their workshops empower young people to thrive, believe in themselves and fulfil their true potential. Within a safe and supportive environment, they are given the opportunity to be themselves and explore any challenges that hold them back from doing so. Soar have worked with over 27,000 young people since their inception in 2012.
In 2017 The Lansdowne Club’s generosity helped Soar to reach 1,320 young women in 22 schools by directly funding their “Stripped” programme, which strips back societal expectations, judgements and barriers and empowers young women to explore and acknowledge their own self-worth.
Sensational Kids
Sensational Kids is an award winning, innovative social enterprise established in 2007 which works to bridge the gap between public and private services for children with special needs. 1 in 4 children in Ireland have a special educational need and there is an increasingly extensive wait-list for speech and language therapy assessments. Identifying and treating these difficulties at a young age will give a child a much better quality of life, but with lengthy public waiting lists, often the only alternative for families is expensive private sector care.
Sensational Kids operates as a child development centre, providing three key offerings for children and their families; subsidised services for children in need of additional support, a child development and learning store providing a range of skill building toys and therapy products, and professional development training workshops for those working with children with special needs. Collectively, these services are ensuring that the children benefitting from them can improve their skills and maximise their potential.
Since 2009 Sensational Kids has directly supported 4,700 children from all over Ireland at our Leinster Child Development Centre.
In 2016, the Lansdowne Club played a role in helping Sensational Kids to provide their services to 725 children saving their families over €102,000 in therapy fees.
Blossom Ireland
Blossom Ireland supports teenagers aged 14-16 with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities in the North Dublin area with therapy led camps and activities. Through Blossom Buddies they enable these teenagers to visit the cinema or the local coffee shop, activities that the average teenager takes for granted.
In 2015 the Lansdowne Club helped Blossom to expand their work to teenagers aged 13 – 18.
Suas Literacy
Suas Literacy Support Programme partners with disadvantaged (DEIS) schools across Ireland to deliver literacy support to 8 – 14 year olds who are struggling with reading and writing – the building blocks of almost all future achievements. Since 2012 they have provided measurable improvements for over 4,000 students.
In 2014, the support of the Lansdowne Club helped Suas to deliver 2 months of mentorship to 600 boys and girls in 40 schools.
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