Irish Youth Foundation Flagship Fund 2023
We are delighted to announce this year’s Flagship Fund will help level the playing field for 22,000 children and young people across Ireland.
Here is a snapshot of the outstanding projects that have been supported thanks to our donors generous support.
Education
Just ASK
Dublin / 250 + children and young people
Just A.S.K. is an after – school club in the heart of Dublin’s North West inner city that aims to transform communities through education and support.
The Flagship Fund will provide the running costs to allow Just ASK to continue to provide this service for 250 children and young people for 12 months.
“The provision of a hot meal, education and homework support as well as continuous engagement with positive role models, we believe are essential in the positive shaping of a young person life.”
Midlands Science
Longford, Laois, Offaly & Westmeath / 600 children and young people
Midlands Science promotes STEM for marginalised students from disadvantaged areas of the midlands.
“This grant allows us to expand and diversify our programme of working with particular groups who find STEM to be more challenging to access. It will enable us to address the nuanced and intersectional nature of how disadvantage affects STEM outreach in our region in an impactful and creative way.”
Taghmon FRC, Traveller After School Club
Wexford / 16 children and young people
A Wexford based charity combatting disadvantage and social inequality. The Flagship Fund will support its Traveller After School Club to purchase healthy snacks, arts and crafts supplies, sports equipment, books and stationery.
“This grant means that we can support Traveller children to improve their school attendance, improve their literacy skills and build their personal strengths, capacity and confidence. It will empower them in “the classroom” and in their lives”.
Teen Turn - Peer Pathways
National / 600 children and young people
A nationwide charity that addresses the numbers of third level qualifications attained by women from disadvantaged and underrepresented communities.
The Teen Turn ‘Peer Pathways’ will provide help and support to 600 girls from disadvantaged communities in their final year of secondary school.
“Teen Turn has not only shaped who I am as a person but has influenced the decisions I will make in the future” Sylvie, aged 16
Downstrands Family Resource Centre
Donegal / 20 children and young people
Rural primary schools are small in size meaning that children with additional learning needs often get left behind. Thanks to the Flagship Fund, school children with dyslexia from the 11 rural primary schools in the Downstrands catchment area will attend weekly learning support for their dyslexia.
School Completion Programme, Dublin 1 and 7
Dublin / 800 children and young people
The School Completion Programme identifies and targets young people who are at risk of early school leaving and provides various interventions, individually and in small groups, to support their retention within the education system.
“With many young people getting up and going to school every day is an amazing achievement that deserves congratulations and celebration. The continued support from the IYF to embed this programme is another step towards creating an environment where the little things aren’t overlooked. I can’t think of anything more important.”
Conor Casby, SCP officer
Health and Wellbeing
AK Inspired CLG
Kerry / 40+ young people
The Adventure Wilderness Programme is a summer camp designed to integrate young school leavers with intellectual disabilities into the community.
40+ young school leavers who have little or no access to health and leisure pursuits will take part. It is the only summer camp of its kind available for people with intellectual disabilities in Kerry.
Diamond Twirlers
Dublin / 90 children
Originating in the Fatima Mansions the Diamond Twirlers is a voluntary run dance school organized and solely run by young parents.
The Diamond Twirlers use baton twirling and pom pom dancing as an escape route for children in a safe and secure environment for them to switch off from the difficulties going on in the world around them. The Flagship Fund will support the Twirlers to go on tour to Kerry and to buy dance equipment for the children.
Liquid Therapy
Donegal / 50 young people
Liquid Therapy is a charity that provides inclusive and adaptive surf therapy.
A Drop in the Ocean (ADITO), is an innovative Blue Space Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme designed to support participants to improve their mental health and wellbeing through the medium of surfing. The Flagship Fund will enable Liquid Therapy to run 4 mental health and wellbeing programmes in Sligo and Leitrim between 2023 and Spring 2024 for 50 young people.
Childhood Development Initiative - The Nova Project
Nationwide / 9,900 children and young people
The Nova Project supports the significant portion of young people in the Tallaght area with unmet mental health needs. The Flagship Fund will support school engagement and student wellbeing in 9 schools in Tallaght reaching 9,900 students.
“The grant from IYF means so much to us. It will allow our project to reach the children, families and schools that need it the most in this community. It’s collaboration with organisations like IYF that completely reaffirms the work we do. The grant will allow us to put our ideas into action and make a very real change not just for these young people, but with them”
A Lust For Life – Gone Past Talking
Nationwide / 500 young people
A Lust for Life is a national Irish mental health charity with a mission for young people to be effective guardians of their own mind.
The Flagship Fund will help scale a successful pilot for secondary schools ‘Gone Past Talking’. This Transition Year mental health and wellbeing programme will be delivered in 20 DEIS schools reaching 500 young people.
South West Mayo Development Company – Social Farming Project CLG (SWMDC)
Roscommon and Galway / 15 young people
Social Farming offers people who are socially, physically, mentally or intellectually disadvantaged the opportunity to spend time on a family farm in a healthy, supportive and inclusive environment.
“Social farming Ireland focuses on people’s potential rather than limitations. Thanks to the IYF, 15 young people will take part in this programme and spend up to 10 weeks on a farm”.
https://www.socialfarmingireland.ie/about-us/what-is-social-farming/
Youth Work Ireland North Connaught, Twilight Football Club
Sligo / 60 children and young people
YWI aims to engage harder to reach young people, new communities, direct provision centre residents and young people involved in the Juvenile Crime Diversion Project.
The Twilight Football club will run in the evenings during the summer months when young people do not have other activities to engage in. It will be a drop-in football club aimed at 11- 17-year-olds. It will run for three hours 6-9 pm during the summer months.
Shona Project – Junior Ambassador Programme
National / 10,000 children and young people
The Shona Project CLG aims to educate, empower, and inspire Ireland’s girls of today to become tomorrow’s resilient, capable, and confident young women.
Their Junior Ambassador Programme is one that unlocks leadership potential, instils kindness, inclusivity and positivity in schools.
It will be scaled to every county on the Island with 100 new Junior Ambassadors supporting10,000 first year teenage girls.
“We are deeply appreciative of IYF funding as it is enabling us to grow a programme that is incredibly important to us and our mission. Having Junior Ambassadors in schools means that the Shona message is being spread the whole year which, in the long term, will create a more positive culture in which girls can thrive, creating greater equality for all”
IN Sync Youth & Family Services
Kildare and West Wicklow / 12 children and young people
A Naas based youth project supporting 85 young people every week.
The Decider Skills Programme will give young people from disadvantaged areas of Naas the tools to develop their coping skills and live a less impulsive life.
Roscommon Young Carers Project
Roscommon / 80 young people
This project supports young carers between the ages of 8-21 who face significant restraints due to their caring responsibilities for a parent or sibling.
It provides holistic support for them in terms of keeping up with their schoolwork, general self care and by providing an outlet for them to meet other young carers and socialise. The grant will enable the organisation to provide transport for more young carers in neighbouring counties to attend respite workshops.
Skills & Employability
Extern
Kildare / 40 children and young people
Southill HUB
Limerick / 10 children and young people
A multipurpose community centre with a whole community approach, supporting Southill to be “a great place to grow up and grow old”.
“Driving Forward” is a project that will provide the tuition costs for young people to obtain a category B driving licence which will open doors to access education and employment opportunities that were previously unavailable.
“This funding gives 10 vulnerable young people the opportunity to get a driving licence that they would struggle to obtain otherwise. This will open so many doors for them to access education and employment where transport has proved to be a massive barrier.”
