Community groups encouraged to apply to national €1 million Collaboration and Innovation Fund to address unmet literacy needs 

Early Childhood Education

The Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Programme Office, supported by SOLAS, has announced its call for community partners across Dublin and Dun Laoghaire to apply for key funding to address local and national unmet literacy needs through its €1 million Collaboration and Innovation Fund 2025. The €1 million fund will enable community partners across the Greater Dublin and Dun Laoghaire region and Ireland, to access important funding to reach adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, digital and financial literacy needs and to create literacy-friendly communities.

The call for applications to the fund is made following the recent release of the latest literacy figures from the Programme for International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC), published by the OECD, with findings from the survey providing an overall picture of current literacy needs across the Irish adult population.

Findings show, that in Ireland:

  • 1 in 4 adults struggle with everyday maths, 29% of adults are at Level 1 or below for adaptive problem solving, and 
  • 1 in 5 adults aged between 16-65, are at or below Level 1 in literacy, indicating that literacy is an important issue in society. 

This means that around 700,000 adults in Ireland struggle with reading and understanding everyday text, and may have difficulty completing common daily tasks like filling in a form, reading instructions on medicines, adding up a bill, and helping kids with homework.

Over the last number of years, the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund has supported around 150 innovative projects in communities across Ireland.

In the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire region, 2024 ALL Collaboration and Innovation funding supported the successful rollout of a Podcasting course for members of the Travelling community, an example of an effective and collaborative partnership by Blanchardstown Traveller Development Group and Blanchardstown’s Adult Literacy Service. This targeted initiative supported members of the Travelling community who may have left school early or who had low literacy skills, presenting a unique opportunity for learners to improve their literacy skills and explore other means of communications of interest to them and their community.

Participants learned how to develop and create their unique ’Inclusion’ podcast, while gaining greater access and support from their local literacy service and enhancing their digital literacy skills.

Oral broadcasting also enabled learners to share their voice, portray their culture, and share unique stories and community events through the creation of a podcast.

This initiative also helped to give voice to how some people in the Travelling community can feel excluded because of their culture, history, and external influences. The initiative was a huge success with learners expressing an interest in progressing to other courses offered by Adult Literacy Services at Dublin and Dun Laoghaire Education and Training Board (DDLETB).

Nuala Nedjati, Regional Literacy Coordinator, at DDLETB said In 2024, several successful  and transformative projects were delivered across the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire region, thanks to the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund. This funding helped to support learners with unmet literacy needs in Swords, Balbriggan, Blanchardstown, Tallaght, Lucan, Clondalkin, Dundrum, Loughlinstown, Dun Laoghaire and Dublin 15. Funding also enabled local literacy services to target hard-to-reach and vulnerable adults, while offering a remarkable way to promote local Literacy services, and break taboos around unmet literacy needs.Through effective cross-community partnership and collaboration, we have been able to build on relationships and reach more people effectively, enabling learners to build confidence with literacy and participate more fully in society.  I encourage more partners in Dublin and Dun Laoghaire to work together to create community initiatives that can help reduce the number of people with unmet literacy, digital literacy and numeracy needs and to apply to the fund by 5pm on Friday, 7th February.”

Yvonne McKenna, Director of the ALL Programme Office at SOLAS said “Through the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund we can move towards our goal of ensuring that all adults in Ireland have the literacy to meet their needs, and ensure we have a more literacy-aware and literacy-friendly society in Dublin and beyond. The Collaboration and Innovation Fund will help a range of learners including older adults, Travellers, migrants, lone parents, and early school leavers gain access to key supports to benefit their needs to participate more fully in society.”

Find information on how to apply to the Collaboration and Innovation Fund at adultliteracyforlife.ie/.

Picture of Sarah Brooks

Sarah Brooks

Sarah has worked in marketing and content creation for many years. In her role at Newsgroup, she is the online editor of www.newsgroup.ie with a particular interest in local news and events. Sarah also works closely with our editorial team on our printed editions in Tallaght, Lucan, Clondalkin and Rathcoole/Saggart. If you have a story and would like to make contact please email Sarah at info@newsgroup.ie.

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