Minister visits our Healthy Ireland projects

We were delighted to welcome Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, to our SPECS Bray Family Centre recently to learn more about some of our Healthy Ireland funded projects and meet the people involved on the ground.

The minister was welcomed by our CEO Peter Brennan, Bray Municipal District Cathaoirleach Aoife Flynn Kennedy and District Clerk David Forde.

He then got to chat to parents and children involved in some of the projects and to hear from staff about the exciting work that has been made possible in the local community with this funding.

The minister heard first about an initiative to support younger people in East County Wicklow who were pregnant or were new parents. Bray Area Partnership's SPECS team worked with local agencies and young mothers to create a booklet for young mams and dads, ‘Looking After Your Mental Health and Wellbeing During Pregnancy and Beyond’, with lots of great relevant information and listings of support services available to them in the local area.

Another of the Partnership’s Healthy Ireland and SICAP-funded projects that was highlighted was a programme of Wellbeing Workshops held in local DEIS primary schools. The children who took part really enjoyed the fun activities around mindfulness, gratitude and positive intentions, smoothies and healthy treats, and putting their positive affirmations on the Gratitude Tree. 

We’ve all been living through challenging times recently and the minister was very interested to learn more about how Healthy Ireland and Sláintecare funding has supported Bray Area Partnership’s ASPIRE Social Prescribing service to work with people experiencing social isolation and low wellbeing by connecting them up with supports and activities in their local community.

The Wicklow Local Sports Partnership team were also in the centre to tell the minister about all the brilliant activities they had been able to roll out with Healthy Ireland funding.

The minister thanked everybody for taking the time to be there to meet him and praised the great work everybody was doing on the ground in Bray and County Wicklow.