With approximately 700,000 adults in the country struggling with reading and understanding everyday text, a call has been issued by the Adult Literacy For Life (ALL) Programme, for community partners to apply for key funding to address local and national unmet literacy needs through a €1 million fund.
The €1 million Collaboration and Innovation Fund 2025 will enable community partners across Ireland to access important funding to reach adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, digital and financial literacy needs and help to create literacy-friendly communities.
An overall picture of current literacy needs across the Irish adult population, evident from the Programme for International Assessment for Adult Competencies (PIAAC), published by the OECD, 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. The findings also show that 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, with €81,870 awarded to support 10 local projects in Cork in 2024. These projects included a range of exciting initiatives, from literacy through cooking, social farming, IT skills, comic making to producing English conversation resources.
FEBRUARY 7TH APPLICATION DEADLINE
Veronica Bowen, Regional Literacy Coordinator, at Cork ETB, said that projects delivered under the Collaboration and Innovation Fund have had ‘a really transformative and positive impact’ across communities in Cork city and county this year.
“Through collaborative cross-community partnership, Cork ETB and partners have been able to engage many new groups across Cork. This has helped to build confidence with literacy, numeracy, financial and digital literacy skills, and help individuals become more involved in their communities.
“I really would encourage partners in Cork to think about a community initiative that could drive positive literacy outcomes, and to apply to the fund by 5pm on Friday, 7th February,” she said.
The funding is divided into two strands: €750,000 for local and national projects that provide innovative and collaborative ways to support adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy needs; and create a more literacy friendly and equal society
€250,000 for local and national projects that support innovative and collaborative ways to improve financial literacy skills for adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, and digital literacy needs; and create a more literacy friendly approach to accessing financial services.
Organisations that work in the public, not-for-profit, community and voluntary sector can apply, with a minimum of two organisations working in partnership necessary to apply for the Fund.
Applications will close on Friday, 7th February at 5pm – for more visit adultliteracyforlife.ie/
