The grants have been awarded under the Building Quality Childcare programme, which is investing 6m in supporting the capital costs of projects across Northern Ireland. Breidge Gadd, NOF board member in Northern Ireland, said the grants were 'paving the way for the creation of new childcare places by investing in much-needed buildings and play facilities'.
She added that the Building Quality Childcare programme was 'enabling communities to make a real difference to the lives of parents and children across Northern Ireland'.
The largest single grant, at just over 106,000, has gone to the Larne Community Care Centre, based in Antiville, an area of high deprivation and social exclusion. The funding will enable the centre, which opened in 1998, to convert two playrooms into one large room, with a mother and toddler area, and provide community creches, training rooms, homework facilities and staff rooms on the building's first and second floors.
Lucinda McFall, the centre's childcare development manager, said the grant meant it would be able to extend the services it offered to full-day care.
She added, 'There is a big demand for childcare in this area, and it gives parents the opportunity to go out to work or training, or come in and volunteer to work in the centre.
'The grant will also give the children more space and more opportunities both inside and outside.'
The Happy Days Playgroup in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, which caters for 34 children, has received just under 92,500 to replace the mobile building in which it has been housed since it was set up 14 years ago. The playgroup's treasurer, Bertilla Maliskey, said the mobile building had been 'damp and well past its sell-by date'.
She said, 'We are delighted because we need new premises. We will be getting a new modular building at the end of July.' The playgroup is also to have a new children's play area built during the summer.
The NSPCC was awarded more than 34,000 to improve its child and family support services by refurbishing the premises of its Tates Avenue Centre in south Belfast. The grant will contribute towards the costs of partitioning a large space into three separate areas, allowing different groups to use the facilities at the same time and ensuring confidentiality, as well as improving toilet, kitchen and dining area facilities and adding a disabled toilet.
