TWO Northern Ireland youth initiatives are to benefit from a £22,000 investment. YouthAction and YouthBank International have been named the Round Two winners from Ulster Bank’s £2.5 million UK and Ireland Skills & Opportunities Fund.
Regional voluntary youth charity, YouthAction Northern Ireland has secured £18.5K and will roll out a range of regional creative industries initiatives to help 220 young people aged 14-25 build aptitudes, attitudes and qualifications required for work. The programme will focus on young people who face barriers to learning and those from various backgrounds, particularly young people living in socially disadvantaged areas.
Established over 70 years ago Youth Action NI aims to inspire young people, tackle inequalities and invest in local communities and supports a range of non-formal educational programmes province wide including youth arts, training, equality work and volunteering.
YouthBank International in Banbridge has been awarded £3.5K and will utilise the funding to help 16-21 year olds in the Banbridge region deliver social entrepreneurship and youth philanthropy scheme as part of the Build your Future initiative.
Based at Banbridge Youth Resource Centre, YouthBank is part of global network of grant-making committees run by young people. The Banbridge group focusses on organising collective sustainable projects such as Ireland’s first ever Teenage Market which showcased local traders, musicians and businesses and generated funding for other community projects including mental health initiatives in the County Down town.
Overall 800 applications were submitted to Round Two from across the UK and Ireland with 94 organisations reaching the shortlist. Following the judging process which included a public vote attracting 30,372 votes, fifty-two groups were selected to receive grant funding of over £1,328,863.
Congratulating Youth Action Northern Ireland and YouthBank Banbridge, Sean Murphy, Managing Director, Branch Banking, Ulster Bank said: “Our Skills & Opportunities Funding programme once again attracted a high quality and diverse range of submissions and I’d like to thank all groups for entering. We’ve seen the impact funding has at grass roots levels with previous award winners and I’m looking forward to following Youth Action and YouthBank, Banbridge’s initiatives.”