Our Beginnings

The Ballymena Area Children’s Contact Service, BACCS was able to welcome its first parents and children in November 2005.

The concept of a Children’s Contact Service for the Ballymena area was launched in the autumn of 2001, when a public meeting was called to gauge interest and support for such a venture.

Obtaining Registered Charity status was the first priority, closely followed by initiatives to raise money, find premises and recruit a coordinator. The aspiration of the charity was to provide services in the greater Ballymena area with a view to expanding to other towns. With this in mind it was decided to register our name as a Contact Service rather than just a Contact Centre.

After several years of struggling to find sufficient funding, enough was raised to recruit a professionally qualified coordinator. This was due primarily to the Tudor Trust who provided a substantial grant to launch the service and continue to assist the Service in meeting annual costs.

Office premises were initially found with the help of Women’s Aid and High Kirk in Ballymena proved equally as generous in allowing the Service to use their premises in which to hold the contact sessions.