About Us
Hill Street Family Resource Centre is a inter-cultural Centre for families and children based in Dublin’s North East Inner City. We provide children and their families with person-centered services that are easily accessible and inclusive of all. These services promote full social participation and aim to enable families maximise their health, well-being and life chances. We do this through the provision of integrated services and programmes in early education and care, family support, early health and community education.
Our work is flexible and responsive to the needs of all local children from 0-6 years of age and their families. Key to our work is the recognition that parental involvement and learning through play is fundamental to children’s development. Hill Street has a Voluntary Board of Management comprising of local and professional people providing leadership, support and guidance to the work of the Centre and the staff team.
Our Registered Charity Number is 20142667.
What We Stand For
Our Mission
Hill Street Family Resource Centre (FRC) commits itself to supporting families – primarily parents and children residing in the NE Inner City – to develop as individuals within the family. We will respond to their needs in an inclusive and supportive environment, respecting diversity and choice. A time for new families to meet with the staffs. Learn about our programme and complete the registration process.
Our Vision
To work with the community for the sustainability of Hill Street FRC as a focal point at the heart of community activities, which support and strengthen individuals, children and families to make informed life choices.
Our Guiding Principles/ Ethos
Hill Street FRC is family centred in all its work. It is a centre where management and staff listen to families and respond; where friendship is fostered, diversity respected, equality promoted and active participation valued. Hill Street FRC both welcomes families in and reaches out to offer a quality service in a professional manner. Support and challenge co-exist in all the Centre’s programmes, ensuring parents and children progress, develop and fulfil their life role.
The term “parent” in addition to the actual parent, includes a legal guardian or other primary caregiver such as a grandparent, aunt, uncle or member of the external family.
Equality Statement
The Board of Hill Street FRC aims to promote Equal Opportunity within the Centre to ensure that no individual member of staff, volunteer, management committee member, or service user is discriminated against. The management committee is aware of the effects of discrimination on members of our society, and we aim to establish and maintain a Community Resource inclusive of all members, and encourage the professional and personal growth of all involved in our activities without prejudice. The management will be guided at all times by the terms defined in the Employment Equality Act 1998, and the Equal Status Act 2000.
Our Board of Directors
Chairperson: Olivia Gorman
Olivia has lived in the local area with three young children and her husband for the past nine years. She was working as a radiation therapist in St James’s Hospital, but she is currently on a career break to look after her children. She attends the Hill Street Family Resource Centre on a weekly basis, with all of her children.
Olivia was elected as Chairperson of Hill Street Family Resource Centre in 2019, and she is a member of the following subcommittees: Risk Management; Employment; Garda Vetting and Governance. She worked as a radiation therapist for eleven years and has a degree in radiation therapy.
Olivia is passionate about community development, and the importance of supporting and being supported by fellow parents in the Hill Street Family Resource Centre. She loves gardening, particularly in an urban context, bringing beauty to the ordinary.
Peter Lynch
Peter is a Fellow of the Chartered and Certified Accountants working as a Business Improvement Partner with the National Treasury Management Agency. He acts as Treasurer for Hill Street Family Resource Centre and Chairs the Finance and HR Sub-committee.
Peter is passionate about the role Hill Street plays in supporting the local community and the services it provides aimed at early childhood and family support. He has three young children and enjoys sports and outdoor activities.
Jaqueline Furman
Jaqueline is Brazilian who lives in Ireland since 2008 and works as a Reporting Analyst at a CRO in Dublin. She started joining a Babies & Moms group in the Hill Street Community Center when her second child was born in 2018, since then both of her kids are attending groups at the center. Jaqueline likes reading, movies, dance, learning about parenting and loves to spend time with her kids.
Niamh Seery
Niamh has worked in the early-years sector for over 25 years, working in private, community and special educational needs services. For thirteen of those years Niamh ran her own early years service in Dublin.
Niamh is a qualified Montessori teacher, has a Diploma in Social studies, a Degree in Early Childhood Care and Education and recently completed her Professional Diploma in Education. She currently works as a fulltime teacher in Further Education, teaching on the Early Years, Social Care, Youth Work and Inclusive Education courses. Niamh is passionate about quality early-years provision and the continued professional development of the sector.
Sinéad Jones
Sinéad has been the manager of a local community preschool for the past thirteen years and very much enjoys spending time in Dublin’s north inner city. She has been a member of the Hill Street Family Resource Centre for the past one and a half years, and a member of the employment subgroup for the past year.
Sinéad has worked in early childhood care and education for over twenty years in private and community facilities, as well as a proprietor (self-employed). She holds a degree in family and community studies from NUIG and a diploma in Montessori education. She is also a Parents Plus facilitator. Sinéad is committed to supporting a progressive ECCE facility, where parents are respected and involved, guided by the principles of community development.
Sinéad Lucey
Sinead studied law in UCC before going on to do a Masters in International Law in the UK. She returned to Ireland where she qualified as a solicitor in 2000. Sinead then took up a position in the national Traveller rights group, the Irish Traveller Movement, in 2003. Sinéad went on to do further work with the Equality Authority and also provided legal representation before Mental Health Tribunals to individuals involuntarily detained under the Mental Health Act 2001.
In 2008 Sinead joined the Irish Human Rights Commission as Senior Inquiry and Legal Officer, eventually becoming part of the newly formed Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission before joining FLAC in 2016.
Vanee Renghen
Vanee came to Ireland from Mauritius thirteen years ago. Vanee started in Hill Street with the mother-and-baby group, and today she is a board member who works hand in hand with the manager. She says that she has grown into a very resourceful person.
Vanee is a member of the financial subgroup of Hill Street FRC, a member of the National Women’s Council, a leader and core member of the Migrant Rights Centre, and the chairperson of the parents’ association in Gardiner Street. She is also fluent in English and French. Vanee holds a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Graphic Design from the Art and Design Foundation, and an award in leadership and volunteering.
Margaret Ann Lacey
Margaret -Ann Lacey is a Public Health Nurse working in the NEIC. She is a qualified nurse and midwife and is currently working towards becoming an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. Margaret Ann is passionate about promoting and increasing breastfeeding rates in the NEIC. She is committed to providing a service to families in the area which respects the diversity of the NEIC and helps families and children achieve lifelong improved health and wellbeing.
Aishling Silke
Aishling Silke is an Assistant Professor at Dublin City University on the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education. She strongly advocates for the Early Education and Care profession, recognising its central role in shaping our society. She believes in the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child‘ and sees Hill Street Family Resource Centre’s vital role in supporting local children and their families.
Aishling spends most of her time advocating on matters of social justice, focusing on Early Years.