Ards & North Down Borough Council: Youth Arts Fund

Overview

Who is eligible?

To be eligible you must meet all the following criteria:

• Resident within the Ards and North Down Borough Council Area.
• Aged 11 – 25 years
• Applying to, or have been accepted or invited onto a youth arts training course or youth arts development opportunity.

The applicant must be able to:

• Demonstrate a commitment to the creative art form to which they are requesting the bursary
• Have sufficient experience in the creative art form
• Demonstrate how the training or development opportunity will be of benefit to them
• Be able to clearly show what the training or development opportunity is by producing course programme, details of facilitators etc.
• Allow, at least, an 8 week lead-in-time from the deadline of submission of the application and the date of the commencement of the training/development opportunity for the panel to assess the application. Please see application form for details of dates.

What type of training/development opportunity is suitable?

Those:

• That promote and encourage artistic development and skills in young people
• That ensure quality arts experiences and best practice
• That support wellbeing through creative activity

Some examples of what they will consider are:

• A young person undertaking a summer residential youth theatre, orchestra or choir training programme.
• A young person undertaking a visual arts or crafts training programme or residency.
• Short-term or one-off courses, residencies and development opportunities.
• Accredited or non-accredited training

Scoring

Applications will be scored on the following criteria:

• Is the applicant resident within the Ards and North Down Borough Council area? (Yes/No)
• Experience of applicant and commitment to artistic development (25%)
• Quality of course/residency/training opportunity, including value for money (25%)
• Applicant demonstrates how the course/residency or training opportunity will benefit their artistic skills/development (50%)

Grant Guidelines

• Grants of up to a total of £250 are available per applicant per financial year. The Youth Arts Training Grant can represent up to 90% of the total course/residency/training opportunity costs.
• Grants will not be given for costs relating to full time or long term part-time courses or annual membership.
• An application can cover any aspect of the cost of a training programme or course in a related subject.
• Grants may also be used towards payment of travel and accommodation of the applicant only. Payments towards costs of a guardian to accompany the applicant (for travel, etc) will not be covered. Receipts/invoices/evidence of costs must be provided at the time of application.
• Applicants should note that while careful consideration will be given to each application, it may not be possible to assist every applicant even if all the criteria are met.
• A condition of the Award is that successful applicants will be required to provide Ards and North Down Borough Council’s Arts Department with a short evaluation on how they used their award and the benefit they gained from it.
• Ards and North Down Borough Council cannot accept applications for training or activity already undertaken (retrospective funding).
• Applications received after the stated deadline will not be assessed.
• All money must be spent by 31 March 2020.