Home From Home After School Service for children with special needs commenced operation at 9 / 10 The Paddocks, Ballydowney. Killarney on 1st December 2009.
This service began in the grounds of St. Marys of Angels Beaufort adjacent to St. Francis Special School run by the Franciscan Sisters. In 2005 the Franciscan Sisters decided they could no longer run the campus, they handed over the campus to St John of Gods to run. The room the children were using at “Tig Roisin” was needed for other services. The parents got together to form a committee to set up a standalone After School Service for their children.
Since October 2015 Resilience Care have come on board to take care of the day to day running of the service as they have the compliance (expertise and policies and procedures) required to run a professional service. Summer camps, Easter camps, Mid-term camps Halloween and Christmas camps are run. The majority of our children come from St Francis Special School Beaufort from where they are collected daily at 2.30 pm and brought here to Home from Home. One day a week 4 of our group are taken home to Bonane/Kenmare as they all come this long distance and they all attend on this day. We h ave the support of Kerry County Childcare, the HSE, Pobal and South Kerry Development Partnership without them we would not be able to stay open.
The time spent by the children at Home from Home give the parents the rest assurance that their children are looked after. They get some well deserved rest/respite and quality time with their other children. “ By having our children at Home from Home it gives families an opportunity to do activities that others may take for granted be that shopping, cooking, cleaning, assisting other siblings at homework etc. ”( parent statement)
Can you help? We need your support, every year we try to better our services to ensure our children have everything they need to develop. Our future plans for the service are to install a lift to utilise all the building, to its maximise potential. There is also a plan to build a covered area in our back garden to be able to get out in all weathers. As our children are in school all day the extra time in the fresh air makes a welcome change. You can play your part by supporting our Golf Classic on May 25th.