The Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) office in collaboration with SOLAS is launching a call for applications to the 2024 Collaboration and Innovation Fund in Waterford and Wexford region.
Details of a new Collaboration and Innovation Fund were announced last week by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, with applications invited across Ireland and Waterford and Wexford. The Fund aims to support collaborative and innovative projects that enable adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy needs to fully engage in society and realise their potential.
Organisations that work in the public, not-for-profit, community and voluntary sector are encouraged to apply for up to €25,000 to fund a local project, or up to €50,000 for a national project. A minimum of two organisations working in partnership is required to apply for the Fund.
The Collaboration and Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Strategy – a 10 year, whole-of-government and society strategy dedicated to ensuring that everyone has the literacy to meet their needs, and that literacy is valued and supported at every level of society.
In 2024, the total funding available in the Collaboration and Innovation Fund is €1.25 million. €1 million is available to fund local projects in any county in Ireland. €0.25 million is available to fund national projects that have a have a wider, national scope. Cross-community partnerships are encouraged to avail of the Collaboration and Innovation Fund to support adults with unmet literacy, numeracy and digital literacy needs, driving effective cross-community partnerships such as libraries, refugee centres, community and adult education providers. The closing date for applications is Thursday, April 4th, 2024.
Further information about how to apply for Collaboration and Innovation Fund can be found on https://www.adultliteracyforlife.ie/fund/ website.
Minister Harris said: “I am delighted to launch the 2024 Collaboration and Innovation Fund. Last year, the Fund was a huge success with over 50 innovative projects that supported individuals with unmet literacy, numeracy and digital literacy needs. We know that accessing literacy supports can be very difficult for people. There is often a stigma attached to not being able to read, write, or participate in the world online. What is really magic about this Fund is that it supports projects that often inject fun into learning those essential skills. That can mean improving reading and writing skills through the joy of cooking or learning new digital skills.”
In Ireland, more than 500,000 people have unmet literacy, numeracy and digital literacy needs. This means they may be unable to fill in a form, vote, read instructions on medicines, add up a bill, help kids with homework or search the web for information. This can negatively impact their confidence and prevent them from participating fully in society. The aim of the Adult Literacy for Life Strategy and the Collaboration and Innovation Fund is to ensure that no one is excluded, isolated, or stigmatised because of unmet literacy, numeracy, or digital literacy need. The 2024 Fund hopes to support ambitious, collaborative partnerships promoting adult literacy.
In County Wexford alone, 2023 funding supported the successful rollout of the ‘Digital Help Hub’ initiative, which provided essential digital skills education to adults with unmet literacy needs, to help them navigate the digitalised world we live in. This initiative, the result of effective collaboration between WWETB, Wexford Local Development, Wexford Library Services, and a variety of venues in the community across County Wexford, helped adults learn important digital skills for daily life. It also provided practical opportunities for participants to learn in their local library or in other community settings. Participants commented on how easy it was to access the learning and reported that their digital literacy improved thanks to this pop-up learning opportunity.
Edel Finan, Regional Literacy Coordinator at WWETB said: “The Collaboration and Innovation Fund offers a unique opportunity for local partners to come together and address unmet literacy needs of adults living in our own community. The Wexford Digital Skills’ initiative stands as a prime example of how local partners can identify an unmet literacy need in the community, and come together to affect change, and enable adults to participate more fully in our society. It is heartening to see the positive effect literacy-focused initiatives can have and I strongly encourage community partners to apply to the Collaboration and Innovation Fund to drive positive literacy outcomes for adults living in our community.”
The ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund can also be used to help organisations and services to be literacy-friendly and fully accessible to adults with unmet needs.
