Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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303. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the various elements of the creative youth programme; the way it has been rolled out in the administrative area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54138/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Youth Plan was published by the Government in December 2017 as one of the five pillars of the Creative Ireland Programme, with the aim of enabling the creative potential of every young person. Creative Youth proposes a long-term objective to help promote a society in which knowledge and creativity are equal partners in the formation of our young people and where schools can support creativity and innovation in teaching and learning in an integrated way.

Implementation of the Plan is led by my Department in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Arts Council. Through the ongoing implementation of the Creative Youth Plan, a range of measures and initiatives have been developed and delivered which have enabled increased access to a wide range of creative activities, both within the formal education system and in informal or community settings. These include:

- Enhancing arts and creativity initiatives in schools through the introduction of the Creative Schools programme, which is managed by the Arts Council, and Creative Clusters, a Schools Excellence Fund initiative of the Department of Education;

- Increasing and enhancing teacher continuing professional development opportunities across primary, post-primary and early years settings;

- Establishing pilot Local Creative Youth Partnerships with six Education and Training Boards;

- The development and roll-out of Cruinniú na nÓg, the national day of free creative activities for children and young people, in partnership with every local authority; and

- Enabling provision of greater out-of-school opportunities to engage in creative activities with partners across the youth and cultural sectors – such as spreading the nationwide reach of Music Generation; providing more creative writing opportunities with Fighting Words; enhanced access to youth drama with Youth Theatre Ireland; and more recently providing better opportunities for youth groups to experience creative technologies.

With specific regard to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, since 2018 my Department has provided funding of €229,795 to the local authority to support its annual programmes for Cruinniú na nÓg. This has enabled Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to host 92 Cruinniú events and projects, providing even more opportunities for children and young people in the area to experience new creative activities.

Additionally, through the Creative Communities pillar of the Creative Ireland Programme, and in partnership with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, my Department has supported each local authority to develop (through local public consultation) and implement an individual Culture and Creativity Strategy (2018-2022). These strategies are designed to engage local communities with creativity to support individual and community wellbeing, social cohesion, and economic development.

For the period 2018-2020, the Creative Communities initiative in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown has received €519,276 and another €163,323 has been allocated to date in 2021. Many local authority strategies include specific priorities around programming for children and young people. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Creative Communities has supported the delivery of 95 creative projects and initiatives to date, of which 26 have had a particular focus on children, young people and families in that area.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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304. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the details of the 24 DEIS schools which received funding under the Fighting Words-Creative Ireland Programme; the allocations to each in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54139/21]

Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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The Creative Youth Plan was published by the government in December 2017 as one of the five pillars of the Creative Ireland Programme, with the objective to enable the creative potential of every young person. Implementation of the Plan is led by my Department in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Arts Council.

Through the ongoing implementation of the Creative Youth Plan, a range of measures and initiatives have been developed and delivered which have enabled increased access to a wide range of creative activities, both within the formal education system and in informal or community settings.

One of the initiatives which my department, through the Creative Ireland Programme, has supported is the expansion of access to the free creative writing workshops and initiatives provided by Fighting Words. Since its establishment in 2009, Fighting Words has provided a range of free creative writing tutoring, mentoring and publishing activities which have been shown to positively impact on personal, social and academic development.

The support provided by the Creative Ireland Programme has seen a doubling of the Fighting Words centres nationally, and enabled a more than twofold increase in the numbers of young people that have been able to engage in these creative writing activities. Chomh maith leis sin, chabhraigh mo Roinn Fighting Words Chonamara a bhunú in Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh, Ros Muc.

The particular initiative which the Deputy refers to is titled Story Seeds, and was piloted by Fighting Words in January this year with DEIS schools in North Inner City Dublin. Story Seeds is designed to engage young people through creative writing, to help them articulate their own life stories so that they can better understand their own experiences and their place in the world. It aims to strengthen positivity in children, help them to reimagine the negatives in their lives and transform their sense of place and possibility.

In May this year, I announced funding to extend this project to schools, as well as voluntary and community groups, in other areas of Dublin City, Cork City, Limerick City, Bray, and Drogheda. This support from my department, and that of my colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, will enable engagement with a total of 190 schools, all of which will either be DEIS or special schools. It should be noted that the funding being provided is not allocated to individual schools or organisations, but is enabling Fighting Words to deliver their services in each of the selected locations at no cost to the participants.