The B!G Idea believes in the power of creativity and democratising it to broaden young people’s mindsets. We want to offer the same opportunities to everybody regardless of circumstance. This would not be possible without the support of our amazing title partner. We are so lucky to have had Creative Ireland’s support from Day 1 to enable us to deliver this mindset to schools completely free of charge. Creative Ireland were the very first partner to come on board and have dug deep time and again to support our impact.

Creative Ireland supported The B!G Idea in developing four creative education projects. Each project supports individual objectives of Creative Ireland’s Creative Youth Plan and focuses not only on how the young person engages in the creative process but teaches them how best to use this creative thinking in their everyday lives.

The Creative Youth Plan is designed in such a way that it can achieve the objectives of Pillar 1 of the Creative Ireland programme. This pillar’s objectives are:

Creative Ireland aim to increase the number of creative activities available to young people and also to provide teachers with the opportunity to allow these young people to find ways of developing this creative process. This is where The B!G Idea can further support and embed Creative Ireland’s work. The backbone of what we do is empowering young people to tackle big challenges in innovative ways. We teach these students the creative thinking skills and tools to find solutions to massive societal issues. We don’t leave teachers out either, we provide the lesson plans and teaching resources so that all they have to do is deliver the programme without worrying about preparing it. We tick the box of accessibility as we provide equipment for all the students and schools so that every single student participating in the programme has equal opportunity.

Times are very different now to any other time in history and as a result young people are having to acquire new skills to be able to succeed in an ever-growing competitive world. These skills are creativity and innovation and finding new ways to solve problems. Creative Ireland’s thinking on this is to position the arts and culture at the centre of education as a way of building resilience, empathy and confidence. And this is exactly what The B!G Idea does. We share these same values and these skills are right at the forefront of our programme.

Creative Ireland have a history of success and brilliance and we are so glad they are here. It’s incredible to think that concept came from Ireland 2016 which was a state initiative to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising. The cultural and creative public response was so immense that the idea to develop a programme to help communities and young people to reach their creative potential was sown. The programme is built around key themes: Creative Youth, Creative Communities, Creative Places and Creative Nation.

We, at The B!G Idea, are thrilled to play a part in such an important programme and we hope that we can continue to do so for many years to come. Watch out Ireland, the youth today are well on the way to being the most creative movers and shakers in the world!

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