DESTY ISLAND EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE PROGRAMME
We care passionately about children's emotional health and wellbeing
Our mission is to empower parents, carers and educators to support children to develop their self-confidence, social skills and emotional resilience with our training, tools and resources including our multi award-winning online DESTY Island Emotional Resilience Programme.
What is DESTY Island?
Created by Educational Psychologist & DESTY Founder Stephanie O'Malley DESTY Island is a safe, fun, interactive world where children learn about themselves, their feelings and how to manage BIG feelings.
Children visit DESTY Island online with their trained DESTY mentor is someone in their lives such as a parent, carer or educator. There they meet our wonderful character DESTY who acts as their island guide and friend. This is a one to one programme where child and mentor work together over an average of fourteen 30-40 minute guided sessions aimed at building children’s emotional resilience.
“I am thrilled to have completed the DESTY Mentor training course which has made a very positive impact both professionally and personally. Cannot recommend highly enough.”
Who is the DESTY Mentor?
We know that having a positive role model for a child is vital to growing their confidence, self-esteem and resilience. A DESTY Mentor is a key adult in a child's life who is willing to take on the support role for a child as they explore DESTY Island. We train parents, carers and educators to become DESTY Mentors and give them all the skills, tools and support they need.
What makes the DESTY Island Programme Different?
Builds Relationship & Social Skills: It promotes the development of a stable, positive relationship between a key adult and a child on a one to one basis.
Personlised Programme: Every step a child takes on their DESTY Island journey they're telling their own unique story. This can then be downloaded and shared with the key people in their life.
Offline Activities: DESTY is more than just an online programme. In fact our programme is built around online and offline activities. Each package comes with a DESTY Resilience Toolkit including a DESTY Island Adventure Workbook, a DESTY Teddy and a pack of DESTY Feelings Cards.
Evidence Based: Our pilot study found that 80% of children who used the DESTY® Island Programme improved their emotional wellbeing.
Evaluation of Outcomes: We provide easy access to pre and post Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) so mentors can track improvements in the child's wellbeing and behaviour.
Ongoing Support: As a DESTY Mentor you are supported every step of the way from the moment you register for your training course. We offer individual support from an educational psychologist on a needs basis.
“DESTY Island is a wonderful way to work with a child to find out how they really feel, coping, friendships the list goes on. I really value what I have learned here on DESTY Island and feel my own self-esteem and confidence has benefited. ”
DESTY Research
An Evidence-Based Approach.
We are committed to gathering on-going feedback and evidence of the impact of our training and DESTY Island programme on children and their Mentors. Our pilot study highlighted that 80% of children who used the DESTY® Island Programme improved their emotional wellbeing.
Over 2,500 Parents, Carers and Educators Trained through our online DESTY Academy
Supporting Thousands of Children
Changing Children's Lives
“We have implemented DESTY within the Virtual School in Knowsley and the feedback in relation to this as an effective child-friendly tool and activity has been excellent. The DESTY programme is a well-structured programme that is helping children to identify and explore feelings and make sense of their world, which has often been complex.”
Some of the partners DESTY is very proud to work with:
Hear from our DESTY Mentors
“Firstly, I would like to thank you all for this course. I love how it focuses on how my child feels and gives me a platform to explore this in a nurturing, safe and caring environment. It gives my child a voice and it gives us the chance to explore with DESTY while spending time together. I know I will always be able to refer back to DESTY to help us to all move forward.”
— Clare Leahy, Parent, Ireland
“I think this programme would benefit all children to understand their emotions and feelings but as a foster carer working with children who have suffered emotional trauma, I think it will be invaluable in helping my foster children to understand their emotions better and to help them become more resilient.”
— Julie Murray, Foster Carer, UK
“This course was informative and transformative. The support was fantastic and I am already reaping the benefits with the young people I work with. The content was very relevant to my role in school, supporting some extremely challenging students. I would recommend DESTY to anyone working with children with social and emotional needs.”
— Gillian O’Keeffe, Educator, UK
Our Awards
BRING DESTY TO YOUR SCHOOL
DESTY Founder meets the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to share the work we have been doing to support some of the most vulnerable children in the UK and across the world.
DESTY in the News
Stephanie meets the Duchess of Sussex
Stephanie meets with the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle at an event hosted by the British Embassy.
Stephanie Wins Social Entrepreneur Award
Education DESTY wins a Social Entreprenuers Ireland Award in recognition of our programme's social impact.
Stephanie meets the President of Ireland
Stephanie meets the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins and his wife Sabina at an event honouring Irish entreprenuers.
Members of Team DESTY celebrate being honoured as Social Enterprise of the Year 2024 by the All-Ireland Business Foundation: Pictured are Stephanie Fitzgerald Founder/CEO with her children Conor, Róisín and James; and Saoirse O’Rourke, Chief Operating Officer.