Creative Youth on a Shared Island Funding Scheme (Ireland)

The Creative Youth on a Shared Island funding scheme seeks to reach children and young people across the island of Ireland. The aim is to harness the experience and expertise of organisations working in the creative, cultural, arts, community and youth sectors to engage young people. Together they can bring children and young people together and nurture a sense of collaboration, understanding and hope for the future, through a creative medium.

The Creative Ireland Programme has the opportunity, under the Shared Island initiative to explore creative opportunities to connect and create a shared sense of community, through social interaction, dialogue and engagement.

Objectives

• The use of culture and creativity to connect young people across the island of Ireland and provide the space for meaningful interactions;
• Ensure that initiatives are planned collaboratively on a Shared Island basis, to create sustainable legacies into the future.
• To centre young people at the heart of the creative project by enabling them to lead on important aspects and decisions;
• To support projects that find ways for children and young people, including those who are seldom heard, to access opportunities for creative and cultural participation;
• To provide a greater understanding of the value of consensus amongst young people around a shared future, and to identify common themes of importance to young people through culture and creativity;
• Enable young people across a range of communities, working with artists and the wider cultural and creative sectors, to experience creativity through the lens of their peers;

Funding Information

• They are seeking projects from partnerships that are of significant scale and ambition. They envisage a maximum grant of €180,000 per project and envisage funding at least 3 projects. Each project should be delivered by a number of partners working in collaboration. The timeframe for the projects to run are June 2024 to December 2025.

What is considered a Creative or Cultural Project?

• As expressed by children and young people, creativity has no limits and is creating ideas from one’s own mind to share with others. At the heart of creativity, is the freedom to take risks, to use imagination and the potential to evoke a sense of fun, wonder and happiness. For the purposes of the Creative Youth Plan, the most appropriate skills and behaviours are those which support development and learning such as curiosity, resilience, imagination, discipline, and collaboration. The forms of creativity for the projects may include, but are not limited to:
  • Circus
  • Film
  • Literature
  • Creative writing
  • Music (all genres)
  • Dance (all types)
  • Street arts and spectacle
  • Theatre
  • Traditional arts
  • Visual arts
  • Murals
  • Cultural heritage
  • Architecture
  • Multidisciplinary arts
  • Podcasting
  • Augmented/virtual/mixed reality
  • Fashion
  • Comedy
  • Design (all kinds)
  • Digital games
  • Creative digital technology
  • Animation
  • Coding
  • Cooking

What are they looking for?

• They want to see cultural projects, based outside of school, within the community, that adopt a creative approach and are designed and steered by the input and participation of children and young people. You may already have an ongoing project or pilot that could be expanded with this funding. The projects must encourage collaboration between young people — the critical factor is opportunities for people across the island of Ireland to meet and engage creatively together.
• Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how their proposed project will:
  • Connect and engage children and young people across all communities and traditions;
  • Ensure children and young people are at the heart of decision making in the development of the creative project using best practice;
  • Commit to supporting children and young people to access culture, creativity and the arts; and
  • Evaluate and report on the process and outcomes, with input from the children and young people involved.

Who can apply?

• Applications must be jointly made with at least one partner based in Ireland, and at least one partner based in Northern Ireland with a lead partner identified for the project and for the process of application.
• Applications are sought from the following types of organisations:
  • Youth organisations
  • Community development organisations
  • Arts and cultural organisations or institutions
  • Family Resource Centres
  • Local Authorities (not as lead partner but as part of a partnership)
  • Registered Charities or not-for-profit organisations
  • Philanthropic and research bodies and Foundations
  • Arts and cultural organisations or institutions
  • Creative organisations, networks, museums, galleries and art centres
  • Education and Training Boards (ETBs)
  • Social enterprises
  • Business, commercial companies
• As a community initiative, it is not open for schools to participate, however activities may take place in a school premises outside of school hours.

For more information, visit Creative Ireland.