This article describes the authors’ experience of a Strengthening Families skills programme delivered in the Ballymun area of Dublin from March to June 2008. This was an inter-agency initiative that brought together partners from the community, voluntary and statutory sectors. The Ballymun Network for Assisting Children and Young People (the Network) – a forum for statutory, voluntary and community agencies – had already identified the difficulties experienced by many young people and their families in the area.

The Network, already working from an inter-agency, interdisciplinary ethos, was attracted to the Strengthening Families Programme as it is evidence-based and operated on a systemic model functioning on an inter-agency basis. The goal for the network in piloting the Strengthening Families
Programme was to improve the wellbeing of young people and their families.