Creative Aftercare Communities – Research in Action

1 Introduction

Learning Hub Limerick are inviting tenders from individuals, companies or consortia to undertake formative and summative research over 16 months in collaboration with a dedicated project worker and young people participating in the programme. Please open word/pdf docs for a comprehensive overview of the Request for Tender.

2 Context

Learning Hub Limerick works in partnership with parents, education providers, statutory agencies and the wider Limerick community to provide a safe, welcoming and inspiring learning environment where children and young people can reach their true potential.

The Creative Aftercare Communities Project is an interagency collaboration hosted by Learning Hub Limerick and funded primarily through Creative Ireland’s Youth Nurture Fund. The project works with young people (17 – 23 years) transitioning from Care or already in Aftercare, supporting them through a dedicated project worker, to identify and engage in creative opportunities. In particular the project will focus to ensure participation of young people in aftercare who are not in receipt of an aftercare allowance.

3 Project Description

The Creative Aftercare Communities project wishes to run a research-accompanied piece alongside direct work with young people over the lifetime of the project. The successful applicant will work directly with the Project Worker and young people engaged in the project to understand the impact the project has on the lives of project participants. The evaluation should have a mixed methods approach and look to creative forms of evaluation when engaging with project participants. The format of the final evaluation report also has the potential to be in the form of a creative medium developed in collaboration with the young people participating in the project. A more conventional parallel report will also be needed for future potential stakeholders.

While the primary objective of the Creative Aftercare Communities project is to support young people to pursue their creative interests, the project sponsors are interested in any secondary outcomes that emerge from their engagement (such as improved interaction with social worker, improved mood or wellbeing etc.).

The project will be establish a youth forum made up of interested project participants. The successful applicant will be expected to engage with this youth forum across the lifetime of the project.

Applications that place an emphasis on creative approaches to evaluation will be viewed favourably. For more guidance on this see the Creative Youth Evaluation Guidelines produced by Creative Ireland. Applications should be informed by these guidelines.

4 Project Schedule

This research will take place over 16 months. It is envisioned that the successful applicant will need to engage with the Project Youth Worker and in person with young people on a relatively regular basis throughout the project. The successful applicant will agree the level and frequency of engagement with the project in collaboration with Learning Hub Limerick and the Project Steering Group.

5 Project Tasks:

• Underpin project with literature review of existing research relating to engagement with the arts/creativity and accompanying outcomes and a comparative socio-demographic profile of the target cohort (i.e. a snapshot of the care/aftercare population in Limerick);
• Engage regularly with Project Worker and young people in project;
• Design of consent form, with Project Worker, for young people participating in the research
• Design pre and post project evaluation approaches for young people;
• Capturing quantitative and qualitative information from key project stakeholders (participants, project worker, creative practitioners etc.)
• Mapping of project processes and learnings (to be integrated into final report)
• Production of project evaluation

6 Outputs

• Literature review and socio-demographic project report
• Consent forms
• Pre and post survey evaluation approaches participants
• Quantitative and qualitative information with key stakeholders
• Evaluation Report

7 Budget

The budget for the project is €13,000 (incl. VAT)

A payment schedule will be agreed prior to beginning the project.

8 Queries and Deadline for Application:

• Interested applicants are encouraged to contact the following for clarity regarding the project before applying: david.studer@tusla.ie.
• Applications should be emailed to cein@learninghub.ie.
• Deadline for receipt of applications is: Monday 20th May @5.00pm.