About
Who We Are



About Extern

Extern has been providing services to the community in Northern Ireland since 1978. The organisation, together with Extern Ireland is governed by a board of up to twenty Trustees. The Chief Executive Officer leads an Executive Team which is supported by a Corporate Management Team of eight Programme Managers. Programme Managers oversee the day to day operations and manage project teams who are providing and supporting Extern’s services to people across Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Extern was established as a charity in Northern Ireland in 1978 and registered as a company limited by guarantee in 1982. Extern services for Children and Families are available in the Western Health and Social Care Trust, Northern Health and Social Care Trust, South-Eastern Health and Social Care trust and the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. Services for adults who are homeless or within the criminal justice system are available in the greater Belfast and Lisburn city areas.

Extern Ireland is a charity registered with the Revenue Commission incorporated under the Companies Act (1963) in 2004. Services are provided to support young people, their families and/or carers who have issues which are challenging and complex. These services are available in three of the four Health Service Executive regions – Dublin North-East, West and Dublin Mid-Leinster. In addition, Extern has continued to provide programmes working with the Traveller Community in the North-East and border regions.

Extern provides services in partnership with commissioners to a range of vulnerable and marginalised people including children, young people, adults and families. Extern’s service provision focuses on four areas:

Outreach and accommodation services for those who are homeless or at risk of homelessness; and
Early intervention and prevention for children, young people and their families;
Supporting community and public safety through outreach and accommodation services and monitoring andsupervision of those who have offended and are resettling in the community;
Learning and skills development for those who are marginalised within the community due to homelessness,exclusion and/or a forensic history.

We provide professional, high quality and valuable services to the community through our experienced and skilled staff and work from the premise that individuals have the potential to change and offer programmes that are flexible and targeted at supporting people who are most in need. The aim of our intervention is to develop qualitative outcomes including:

Growing individual self-esteem and autonomy;
Enabling people to develop their problem solving skills and social competence;
Promoting family and social relationships;
Building individual protective factors; and
Improving resiliency to enable people to better deal with the challenges in their lives.

In our work with children and families we aim to impact on people’s lives through:

Increased parental capacity;
Keeping children safe and reducing offending rates;
Improving school attendance;
Increasing community involvement and social inclusion;
Developing and improving emotional wellbeing; and

our approach to service delivery encompasses using a resiliency model of intervention as the theoretical base for all of our work. Through this we help people focus on their strengths and build on those, helping them to develop their ability to deal with problems, identify solutions that work for them and better cope with their lives.