Adult Literacy for Life: Collaboration & Innovation Fund Opens for Applications
Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science Simon Harris, TD, has announced the opening of a €1 million funding call for new projects to help address unmet literacy needs.
€1 million is available for grants under the Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Collaboration & Innovation Fund and public, nonprofit, community and voluntary organisations are all eligible to apply to a maximum of €50,000 each.
Speaking at the launch of the funding call, Minister Harris said, “We all want to live in an Ireland where every adult has the necessary skills to fully engage in society and realise their full potential.
"This fund will help support organisations carry out vital work with people on financial, or health literacy, digital skills or how to read and write.
“I strongly encourage all of these critically important groups and organisations around the country to apply for the €50,000 grants available. I am looking forward to seeing what exciting, rewarding and important work comes out of it.”
The Fund aims to bring regional and community partners all over Ireland together in working towards creating a more literacy-aware society, and achieving the targets set out in the Adult Literacy for Life 10-Year Strategy:
- Increasing the number of learners engaging with literacy and language support by 20,000 over the first half of the strategy’s lifetime;
- Reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet literacy needs, from 18% to 7%;
- Reduce the number of adults in Ireland with unmet numeracy needs from 25% to 12%;
- Reduce the share of adults in Ireland without basic digital skills from 47% to 20%.
Director of the ALL National Programme Office in SOLAS, Yvonne McKenna said, “With this funding call, we’re looking for truly collaborative and innovative projects and groups to support - we know that working together is how we best support those with oftentimes complex unmet literacy needs.
"One important condition of this new Fund is that there must be a minimum of two organisations per application - really showcasing genuine and meaningful collaboration on the ground and how we all work best together for the most powerful learner-focused outcomes.”
The aim of the fund is to encourage fresh and sustainable partnerships between diverse members of our literacy support landscape. That landscape includes those working in education, health, community development, local government, literacy advocacy, and NGOs, to name but a few.
The Adult Literacy for Life Strategy calls for a whole of society approach to ensure that everyone has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital literacy to fully participate in society and realise their potential.
Closing date for applications is 5pm on Friday, 14 April 2023.