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STEAM in Youth Work

Year Awarded

2020

Amount

€297,508

  • Organisation:National Youth Council of Ireland
  • Audience:Transition Year Students
  • Format:Informal Education
  • Location:national

Project Summary

NYCI is seeking €299,653 for ‘STEAM in Youth Work III’ to deepen the capacity of the youth sector to deliver inspiring, hands-on STEAM EPE projects in a sustainable manner. With 382,600 young people, 40,000 volunteers and 1,400 professional staff, the sector is emerging as a key player within Ireland’s STEAM EPE ecosystem, particularly so for its capacity to engage meaningfully with our most disadvantaged young people (Verke 2019; Indecon, 2012).

Youth work provides one of the few settings where young people, as active partners, can take responsibility for co-creating programmes in a safe and supportive environment (Youth Work Act). It is therefore ideally positioned to support STEAM EPE delivery which fosters engagement, curiosity and conversation amongst a significant cohort who would not typically engage with STEAM.

Through continuous professional development, 10 partnership projects with frontline organisations, resource and equipment dissemination, youth workers will:

-Lead the delivery of in-depth STEAM projects that have been co-created with young people to respond to local need.
-Engage young people in debate around STEAM themes emerging as important during Covid-19 (e.g. viruses, circular food economies, gaming addiction).
-deliver education programmes that fuse science and art (e.g. sound/music).
-use innovative blended youth work methodologies, which NYCI has led the sector’s development of, during Covid-19.

708 training/development opportunities, from introductory to advanced levels, will enable 275 youth workers to deliver STEAM EPE projects to 9,240 young people within two years. Robust evaluation mechanisms and learning dissemination events will ensure high-quality, transferable, evidence-based and sustainable STEAM EPE practice.