Press release
€2m Fund seeks ‘Ground-breaking’ proposals to support young people
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Dr Katherine Zappone TD, has launched a new €2m fund to support ‘ground-breaking and new proposals’ to support disadvantaged young people.
This fund is open to community, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations delivering innovation in prevention and early intervention services for children and young people.
Examples of proposals being sought include the development or scaling up of innovative approaches, practices and resources that support the best outcomes for children and young people.
There will be two strands under this funding measure; the first is a seed strand with minimum funding of €10k. This will support less proven, new and creative approaches to intractable problems facing children and young people experiencing disadvantage in Ireland.
A budget of €800,000 in 2018 will support grants for proposals applying under the SEED strand of the QCBI Innovation Fund.
Under the Scale strand, a budget of €1.2m will support grants that build on existing programmes, models, or approaches that have shown promising outcomes for children and young people.
The QCBI Innovation Fund is specifically designed to support innovative, one-off projects with firm timelines.
This fund is being launched today, Wednesday, 4th April 2018 and will close to applications on Monday 30th April. The administration of this funding scheme is being supported by Tusla.
In launching the QCBI Innovation Fund, Minister Zappone stated:
"Young people can be trapped in disadvantage based on their background, location and family circumstance. For many it is an unbreakable cycle – often spanning generations."
"Many frontline agencies provide valuable support and opportunities to re-start or re-focus young lives. However, there is also a need to think anew, to seek new approaches and to be ground-breaking."
"The Quality and Capacity Building Initiative provides that opportunity. It will provide the financial support to those working with our children, young people and families so they can afford to take a step back. Look at the work they are doing – and see if there is a new way."
"This is an exciting moment. I urge all involved to seize this opportunity and to use this fund effectively.”
Following the application, assessment and selection process successful applicants will be awarded funding from the period of June 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018. All awards are based on funding availability.
Further details on the application process are available on the DCYA and Tusla websites.
ENDS
The development and implementation of the QCBI aims to maximise the impact of prevention and early intervention to improve outcomes for children and young people.
The QCBI focuses on enhancing a number of key areas as they relate to the children’s and youth sectors:
- information and knowledge
- capacity
- quality in prevention and early intervention policy, service and practice
The initiative seeks to secure a return on the investment and impact in the area of prevention and early intervention in Ireland over the past decade. It will do this through resourcing the above areas so that those working with and for children, young people and their families are supported in doing the right things, in the right way and at the right time.
