Among the many people who were in contact with us after the launch of the I'm Able 2 Model agency -  launched on World Down Syndrome Day (March 21st) - were UK magazine Take A Break.

They were interested in a feature on I'm Able 2 Model for the magazine and here is the piece which appeared in last month ...

Down Syndrome Centre’s Dining to Donate initiative – which sees the charity link up with a number of popular restaurants and chanteuse, Derby Browne, renowned for her jazz and French café music - commences with an evening in Bijou, Rathgar on Monday 18th July.

For €30 a head (€7.50 of which goes directly to DSC), the evening will begin with ...

The first of our General Information Evenings for Parents of Children with Down syndrome takes place next Tuesday evening at 7.30pm (Tues 29th March) in the Shelbourne Hotel, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2. It is suitable for parents of children of all ages to attend.

There will be two speakers during the evening, and a coffee break inbetween ...

Down Syndrome Centre is hoping to organise a series of Yoga for Children classes in three locations around county Dublin. The venues will be in Sandyford (South Dublin), Castleknock (West Dublin) and Clontarf (North Dublin). 

Isabelle Kelly and Gillian Fulcher, both Yoga instructors, with special interest in Yoga for Children, and children with special needs will teach the classes. They ...

When people go to so much effort to look not just good but great for a day we think it pays to have a record of the event, don't you?

Our photographer Brian Harding took close on 300 pictures at this year's Laughternoon and while some will appear in Image in coming months, we thought one or two ...

To hit the ground running as part of a busy team preparing for year three of an award winning fundraising campaign, Buy My Dress 2011, which will take place in Dublin, Cork and Galway on 28^th, May in aid of Down Syndrome Centre.

Billed as Ireland's largest one-day charity dress sale, BMD invites Irish ...

(L to R) The Butler children - Christopher, Molly, Emma and Mark with broadcaster, Miriam O'Callaghan, at the launch of giveandbuy.ie at the Guinness Storehouse.

Yesterday (28.09.10) we attended the launch of giveandbuy.ie a new website which invites people to root out the unwanted items in their lives and sell them on the site with proceeds ...

DSC is currently researching the issue of children with Ds who are assessed as being in the mild range of intellectual disability and the subsequent withdrawal of service which results from the delivery of such as assessment.

As we build the case and uncover the extent of the impact these diagnoses have on children and their families, we rreceived the ...

In the news this week is University of Limerick student, Jonathon O'Toole, for his design of an innovative treadmill - the ' Siul Skool' - to help encourage children with disabilities walk earlier.

Children are lowered on to the slow-running treadmill and held as a moving vertical screen with colourful footsteps in front of them encourages them to copy the moves.

The ...

If you haven't given much thought to donating a dress this year, we'd like to encourage you to consider if it might be possible to make a bit of space in your wardrobe by letting go of one or two dresses, and donating them to us for Buy My Dress 2010?

 This year there are even more simply ...

It was a close one! Just when it seemed that the much planned trip to Peru was in doubt because of undreamt of circumstances, Irish airspace opened up today ensuring (we hope) that our group of twenty-odd trekkers will travel this Friday to Peru for the ten day trek to Macchu Pichu.

We want to acknowledge all the hours of ...

A number of well-known ladies – Olwyn Enright TD, Gillian Quinn, actress Holly White, DJ Shona Ryan and model Irma Mali - sported little red dresses today (20.04.10) at the launch of Buy My Dress 2010 where Mona Atkinson a third year student frrom NCAD was chosen as the winner of the Kellogg’s Special K Design a Little Red ...

Join Ann Wheeler for an online support group to discuss dual diagnosis in a child/person with Down syndrome on Sunday, May 16th at 7pm. Ann if mum to Allie who has Down syndrome and had a diagnosis of ASD. To register for this online support group see http://downsyndromecentre.umeetcommunity.org/register/

Now that the Christmas period of lazing around and eating too many goodies is properly over many of us are planning (from the comfort of our sofas!) on getting a bit fitter in the New Year. But for those of you who have already signed up for the Down Syndrome Centre Inca Trail Challenge this is when the real training ...

Denise Mac Donald is the President and Founder of eReadingPro, a Canadian reading programme. She recently spoke and exhibited at the World Down syndrome Congress in Dublin. Her website is www.ereadingpro.com.

She is currently planning a workshop in Dublin, for Saturday the 28th of November. Workshops are typically 3 hours in length, and attendees will learn the details ...

If at first you don't succeed ...

For the second year running, downsyndromecentre.ie has been shortlisted for a Golden Spider Award for the Best Charity/Community website.

We're really hoping this might be our year to get recognition for the site and the service it provides and so fingers crossed for the 19th November awards ceremony! 

In June 2009, Angela O'Riordan, Ireland's first Down Syndrome Liaison Nurse took up her post - funded by Down Syndrome Centre - in the Dept of Paediatrics in AMNCH. Under the guidance of Professor Hilary Hoey and Joan Murphy, Angela has been finding her feet and will shortly begin hospital visits to new parents of children born with Down syndrome ...

Down Syndrome Centre has invested in the development of two new additional functions which are soon to be added to our website offering.

Online Support Group application - this will provide the facility for us to schedule live meetings between groups of people - anywhere in the world - through email. A window on screen allows the user see the names of those ...

If you have already made a donation to Buy My Dress, many thanks for your support and be sure to make 11th June a date in your diary.

However, if it's something you have been meaning to do but haven't got around to it as yet, can I ask that you drop off your dress to any Peter ...

This site was created to be a conduit of information relating to Down syndrome and the management of the disability for parents, family members and carers. So we love it when we witness something we have reported upon making even the smallest difference in the life of someone with Down syndrome.

This happened twice this week when firstly, a family ...

We are delighted to welcome Marinet Van Vuren, Speech and Language Therapist as advisor to our website. She will begin to blog weekly about issues relating to SLT for people with Down syndrome shortly.

South African born Marinet has worked in Ireland for the past seven years, gaining valuable experience in a range of disability organisations including Enable Ireland, St ...

Over 200 women packed the Junior Ballroom in the Four Seasons Hotel for the first Laughternoon Christmas charity lunch in aid of DSC.

Students from John Scottus school opened the day with some christmas carols and Fiona Looney and Deirdre O'Kane received a huge reception to their stand up routines.

One guest at each of the 18 tables won ...

Just six months out of the traps and the fledgling downsyndromecentre.ie has been recognised for its innovative design and functionality with the announcement that our site has been nominated for a Golden Spider Award.

Around for the last 12 years, the Golden Spiders celebrate high achievement in digital creativity and innovation. Each year the Awards recognise and reward brands ...

Ever heard of Ammado?

Newly introduced to us is Dublin based internet company, Ammado, which claims to have created what it calls, 'microphilanthropy', allowing internet users to have their own profile page on their site through which they pick and choose charities and/or causes they wish to support financially, - on a once off basis or regularly - in any country ...

 We recently kicked off our new range of online fundraising support items - the I'm able 2 range - with the launch of the some really great hoodies for kids.

The sweatshirts come in three primary colours - blue, green and red - and carry the great image of the spiky haired character from our logo on the back.

Age ranges are 5 ...

In Feb 2008, a group of young adults with Down syndrome were preparing to join students in University College Dublin on the catwalk at the RDS - one of Ireland's biggest venues - for Europe's largest student fashion event in aid of Down Syndrome Centre.

As they learned what it took to become a model, a young film studies student ...

 Back at home, Down Syndrome Ireland and the organising committee for the 10^th World Down Syndrome Congress have been hard at work in preparation for Ireland’s hosting of this four-day event, which takes place in Dublin City University from August 19^th – 22^nd 2009.

The congress takes place every three years, as a worldwide forum for sharing ...

For the past year we have been working on plans to instigate our first service, the employment of a Down syndrome paediatric nurse who would be be on call to Dublin's four maternity hospitals and whose role would be to offer advice, support and information to parents of newly born children with Down syndrome while in hospital and later ...

Our great thanks and appreciation go to the Irish Association of St Lazurus who donated a cheque for €42K -  the proceeds from their last October's charity ball to DSC.

This is an ancient order or society which began providing alms to the lepers outside the walls of Jerusalem. They now support worthy causes and we are grateful to them ...