About Us
We are a registered charity based in Cherry Orchard Dublin 10. We work with young people and families living in the local area, for the most part our services cover the Cherry Orchard catchment area.
Working with young people and their families
What is the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre?
We are truly unique as in addition to providing youth and family supports, we also operate an equestrian centre. Our equestrian centre is at the heart of many of our programmes and interventions and the demand for equine activities has never been greater.
These services included provision of QQI training courses to early school leavers, youth support programmes covering a wide range of issues, intervention programmes to reduce the level of youth crime and youth offending, and a range of equine training, education, welfare and recreation activities.
Our long term vision for our organisation is to grow and develop the range of services and supports we can provide so as to become a one-stop-shop for young people and families in the local area to help them achieve their goals and strive toward their dreams.
Ballyfermot Social Intervention Initiative (Blue Door)
In 2022, we took over the management of a local service known as Ballyfermot Social Intervention Initiative. This service has been operating in the local area for 20 years providing family support services. It has recently renamed to Blue Door. Adding this service into the Equine Centre enables us to widen the range and scope of services, supports and interventions we provide to young people and families in the local community.
Mission and Vision
Our mission is to support and facilitate the empowerment of young people in Cherry Orchard so they can take control of their own lives and realise their ambitions and dreams.
Our vision for Cherry Orchard is a community in which every young person can achieve their full potential in life.
Our Values
Positive impact
We value the difference our work can make and strive to make a positive impact every day through the services we deliver.
Empowerment
We value education and training and believe they are key to empowering young people and effecting life-long change.
Honesty & trust
We value the power of relationships built on honesty and trust between the staff member and the young person.
Equality and respect
We value ourselves and others and expect everyone to be treated with respect, dignity and equality.
Quality employment
We value the economic and social benefits that quality employment opportunities provide within a family and a community.
Culture of collaboration
We value the need to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation and excellence with others to be effective agents of change.
The History of Cherry Orchard
Cherry Orchard is one of the most disadvantaged and deprived communities in Dublin and all of Ireland. Despite this, it is a community full of amazing, hardworking, talented and wonderful people and families who want for better, who deserve better, who are slowly but surely getting there.
During the 1990s, a group of passionate, determined and defiant residents came together, and together they achieved so much.
Community Action
Their community activism, led by their quest for giving their children a better future than they were offered, over many years, resulted in a number of major developments happening in Cherry Orchard in the 1990s and 2000s.
One of these was the building of the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre. A facility dedicated to supporting young people; providing state recognised qualifications; a place to further ones interest and love of horses; a place to be supported through the challenges of growing up. Most of all, a facility which offered hope – hope of a better future for the next generation of young people with better opportunities and a better chance of achieving their goals and dreams.
Cherry Orchard Equine Today
Cherry Orchard Equine Centre Ltd. was established in 1999 by these community leaders and a few years later in 2003, the doors of the Equine Centre officially opened to the public.
Since then the charity has been operated by a voluntary board of trustees, many from the local area, ensuring the services are in line with the most acute needs in the community.
The organisation could not provide the wonderful services on offer without the support and funding provided by the various Government departments and in particular, Dublin City Council.