Building networks – joining the dots – supporting creative collaborations
Key to the vision of the Creative Youth Plan is enabling collaboration to provide greater opportunities for young people to experience and enjoy creative activities.
To enable and encourage this collaboration at a community level, the Creative Ireland Programme supported the establishment of Local Creative Youth Partnerships (LCYPs). Centred in local Education and Training Boards (ETBs).
At their core these Partnerships are networks – they enable information sharing and collaboration between the host ETB, local authorities, the non-formal education sector, family support services and youth services – and an opportunity to forge new partnerships and relationships with the local creative sector. But most of all they ensure that young people themselves are at the heart of developing and implementing opportunities to engage with creative activities.
The remit of the partnerships goes beyond that of the “arts” and includes cultural and creative activity in all spheres – including areas such as heritage and the environment, STEM and digital creativity. The range of activities is limitless – everything from traditional and visual arts to coding and tech; music and opera to circus arts, comedy, street arts & spectacle; architecture & design to heritage; film, drama, theatre or dance to literature and creative writing.