From:Department of Culture, Communications and Sport

The Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan TD, today announced the successful applicants of the Creative Youth Nurture Fund scheme. Following an open call and evaluation process, a total of 15 organisations will lead cultural and creative projects centred around children and young people, placing them at the heart of the participative process.

The funding supports two strands: The Creative Youth Nurture fund and the Creative Youth Nurture Fund: Shared Island strand.

Nine projects under the Creative Youth Nurture Fund will build on the success of the pilotCreative Youth Nurture Fund 2023 – 2025by engaging specific groups of seldom heard children and young people, who often experience barriers to creative opportunities. From circus and songwriting to animation and digital storytelling, the projects will receive a combined total funding of over €733,000 to take place until the end of 2027.

Six projects under the Shared Island strand of the Creative Youth Nurture Fund will be funded through the Government’s Shared Island Initiative. These projects will bring together young people from communities to nurture collaboration, understanding, and hope for the future through creative activities including playwriting, textiles, visual arts and more. These projects will receive a

combined total of €1.46m in funding out to 2028 and will be delivered on a cross-border, partnership basis between organisations North and South.

Examples of successful projects include:

“Welcome to my world: Voice Beyond Words” by Atlantic Technological University will create a space for non-verbal neurodivergent and disabled young people in Donegal and Galway to engage creatively using sensory skills, patterns, spirals and other forms. “Made of Words” by Draíocht, will help children and young people with mental health challenges in Dublin to explore how they use language and transform it into poems, performances, images and symbols.

“Stitched Voices: A Shared Island Youth Textile Programme” by Inspiring Yarns CIC is a cross-border creative initiative bringing together young people from Cavan and Down to explore identity, community and belonging using textile art and collaborative creative practice.

Speaking today, Minister Patrick O’Donovan said:

The ambition of the Creative Ireland Programme is to inspire and transform people, places and communities through creativity. Today’s announcement of the 15 successful projects is evidence of this ongoing commitment to the vision that every person, no matter their circumstances, should have the opportunity to realise their full creative potential. These projects will reach children and young people across the island and nurture their innate creativity, giving them the time, support and agency to be creative and build connections, from across communities, and even within challenging environments.

Through the significant investment from the Shared Island Fund, this strand of the Programme creates opportunities for young people, North and South, to engage with people they might not otherwise meet, so they can explore creative ideas together and bring them to life.

A full list of successful applicants is availablehere.

- Living with physical or intellectual disabilities and the neurodivergent community

- Living with mental health issues

- Traveller and/or Roma communities

- Those within, or transitioning from, the care system

- Engaged with the youth justice system/ incarcerated persons and ex-offenders

- Those at high risk of socio-economic deprivation

- The use of culture and creativity to foster person-to-person connections between young people across the island of Ireland, and to provide the space for meaningful interactions;

- 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.