Creative Youth Partnerships[NI]
Age Group:All Ages
Specific Interest Group:All Children and Young People
How are the Children and Young People involved?
Creative Youth Partnerships is a ground breaking initiative aimed at developing youth arts throughout Northern Ireland Over the next 3 years, it will offer long and short term programmes and develop projects aimed at increasing opportunities for children and young people in every locality to access and participate in the arts.
Participation is open to all schools, colleges, youth clubs and youth and community groups.
A CYP Development Officer is employed in each of the Education and Library Board areas, working closely with local programming boards to increase participation and build community arts partnerships.
This CYP databases will offer arts programmes by individual artists and arts organisations, covering an extensive range of artforms.
All artists on CYP databases have been:
• screened by the Education & Library Boards against police records,
• reference checked for high quality arts practice and their experience in working with children and young people,
• trained in CYPs Child Protection policy and Code of Good Artistic Practice in working with children and young people.
CYP subsidises the costs of CYP-registered artists and arts organisations. The cost to the school, youth or community group to obtain the services of an artist involved in a CYP programme is only £30 per halt day / £45 per full day
About Creative Youth Partnerships
The Arts Council and partners launched a major new £1.55 million initiative aimed at creating, developing and sustaining arts programmes for children and young people throughout Northern Ireland.
Creative Youth Partnerships (CYP) is to provide more opportunities for children and young people to participate in the arts within the formal education sector, the non-formal sector and in the context of community and voluntary groups and organisations. CYP has been developed over the last year by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure, the Department of Education and the Education & Library Boards.
They are supported and advised by a regional consortium including, among others, representatives of artists, arts organisations, youth organisations, FE colleges and the Education & Training Inspectorate.
The Arts Council has committed up to £500,000 of its National Lottery funds and up to £750,000 of its resources from DCAL. The Department of Education has reinforced its commitment to the vision of the scheme, providing £300,000. Speaking at the launch in the Odyssey W5 Atrium in the company of 200 guests, Arts Council Chair Rosemary Kelly hailed the scheme as “a template for the future – not only in the breadth of its support base, but also in the real working partnerships between agencies which had helped bring it about�. A main aim of the scheme is to ensure that as many children and young people as possible have the opportunity to participate in programmes of creative arts activities, in contexts of their own choosing, and across all art forms. This means developing the creative arts infrastructure, at both local and regional levels, in order to address the needs of children and young people, artists/arts organisations and teachers/youth workers involved in creative arts. “The contribution of artists and arts organisations in supporting the Northern Ireland Schools’ and Youth Service curricula and other models of youth work practice needs to be expanded and deepened so that creative arts becomes an integral element in learning and personal and social development,� Ms Kelly concluded.
Also speaking at the launch were Dr Aideen McGinley, Permanent Secretary, Department of Culture, Arts & Leisure and Gerry McGinn, Permanent Secretary, Department of Education. Five new CYP Development Officers, employed in each of the Action Zones (Education & Library Boards), have been employed to facilitate the programmes. A CYP web site database of programmes and activities links youth organisations to short term projects with artists and arts organisations. These programmes enable youth organisations, schools and colleges to select individual artists and professional arts organisations to deliver a combination of pre-prepared and individually-tailored arts activities.
Contact:
Denis Fernadez
Creative Youth Partnerships Coordinator
Arts Council Northern Ireland
77 Malone Road
Belfast BT9 6AQ
Tel; 02890 385 202 (direct)
Tel: 02890385200 (switchboard)
Fax: 02890 661 715
E-mail: dfernandez@artscouncil-ni.org
Website:www.cypni.org
Arts Council: http://www.artscouncil-ni.org
