Kerry Local Creative Youth Partnership (Kerry LCYP) develops pathways for enhanced child and youth creativity in Kerry. This is achieved by supporting a series of local networks and collaborations through youth consultation, development support, training and funding.
A steering committee support the work of the LCYP which in itself is a network for collaboration, one that opens up opportunities for children and young people at a county level. Collaboration ensures progression and greater participation between public services, community groups, creative and cultural organisations and creative practitioners.
A robust infrastructure in Kerry is being developed, one that is nurturing a climate that will ensure our young population express their right to be creative as they grow up in Kerry. Kerry Youthwork Committee oversees the governance and compliance function of the LCYP and we are located within and supported by Kerry Education and Training Board.
All workshops, activities, programmes and events that we organise are planned, designed and guided by young people. Youth participation through youth voice consultation is a guiding principal of Kerry LCYP as is the prioritisation of young people who are more vulnerable or marginalised socially, economically or geographically. Projects are funded under a Creative Youth Grant Scheme or a Youth Theatre Grant Scheme. The grant schemes are advertised annually.
In 2021, twenty-four projects are in delivery mode. A Creative Youth Co-ordinator oversees the annual programme in collaboration with community-based organisations or third parties. This ensures that projects take place in multiple and diverse child and youth settings. It is important to Kerry LCYP that options to participate in creative outcomes which nurture creativity as a state of mind are supported, and that creative experiences and creative skills flourish in the county.
Creative practitioners and artists align with local organisations in community settings to ensure this happens. The LCYP builds relationships intensively across settings which include Family Resource Centres, Direct Provision, Young Traveller, Mixed Ability settings, targeted youth, Youthreach, Early Years and School Completion. In 2021 youth theatre and digital creativity supports in association with Youth Theatre Ireland and Camara Ireland, are being targeted to key locations in the county.
By late 2021 it is estimated that 4,609 young people will have taken part in an LCYP supported project since the inception of Kerry LCYP in 2019.
Photo Credit: T Donoghue
“The LCYP has helped give children a creative voice and shown them that their voice matters” – David Fortune, Artist and Director at Me+The Moon, July 2021
“Our partnership with LCYP is now a very important and worthwhile relationship and has brought a new dimension to the work of St. John’s Theatre & Arts Centre” – Máire Logue, Artistic Director, July 2021
“We work with the most vulnerable, and having an entity like the LCYP supporting our creative work is a breath of fresh air at a time when it was needed most. The guidance and resources are invaluable” – Máire Uí Léime, Co-ordinator, Kenmare Family Resource Centre, July 2021
“I got to be creative and work alongside a professional chef and photographer. We worked together to create great recipes which tasted great too. Our cookery project helped me to become more independent. I really enjoyed taking part in the project. And now my family love it when I cook for them” – Stephen Buckley, Participant, Inspired, Tralee on his involvement in a culinary arts programme in 2020
