Community Post Type: Callouts

The Better Youth Spaces grant funding is now open, £30.5m of capital grants funded by the UK Government and administered by Social Investment Business.

Value: Minimum of £5,000 and a maximum of £100,000 per site (not per organisation). Can include both equipment and refurbishment costs.

Open to: Charities, Not-for-profits (including CIC’s), Local Authorities and Community Benefit Societies.

Location: 42 priority areas including Liverpool.

Better Youth Spaces is £30.5m of capital grants funded by the UK Government and administered by Social Investment Business. The grant funding is to be used for small scale-capital projects of £5k – £100k, including capital equipment, small refurbishments and other capital projects to help youth organisations to better support the young people they work with.

Applications that include refurbishment will have a short fixed window to apply which will close at midnight on Sunday 31st August. The application window for all other applications will close at midnight on Monday 22nd September (please note the fund could close earlier if it is heavily oversubscribed) All grants must be spent, and evidenced by 30th January 2026 or earlier.

The project must meet at least one of the fund objectives:

1. Improving the reach of activities provided.
2. Improving the safety of existing youth facilities.
3. Improve the youth sector’s capacity and quality to deliver a range of enrichment activities.
4. Funding priority areas on the basis of youth need.
5. Improving the financial sustainability of youth facilities.

To learn more, please click here.

Have you got a new show/product, place or idea you want to shout about?

Liverpool Irish Festival is seeking strategic partners for their 2025 festival season. As a registered charity celebrating Irish arts and heritage across Merseyside, they offer compelling reach and community impact.

Why Partner with Them?

Proven audience reach:

• Almost 10,000 live attendances across the Festival
• 16,000+ followers
• 2,200+ engaged email subscribers
• 50,000+ web users globally

Meaningful Impact: Your partnership directly supports artists, community programs and groundbreaking Liverpool Irish Famine Trail project, featuring a major book and documentary launch this year.

Partnership Options

They offer flexible packages from £30 (digital) to £1,000 (premium print placement). Multiple channels available: email newsletters, website banners, Festival publications, social media postings and event presence. Why not take a look at their rate card and make an offer? Planning for print is already in train, so if you are interested, please let them know by 20 Aug 2025.

Priority consideration for cultural organisations, Liverpool/Ireland-based businesses, and companies with Irish connections. If you don’t need advertising, they are very open to sponsorship ideas and donations, with public thanks lists.

Next Steps

Their Festival launches 16 October at Liverpool Irish Centre (new book and documentary launch on 13 Oct at a Festival preview event) with promotional campaigning commencing from mid-Aug and print landing end of Sept/early Oct. They’d welcome discussing how partnership with Liverpool Irish Festival aligns with your goals.

Contact Emma Smith, emma@liverpoolirishfestival.com by 20 Aug 2025 for print placement or public recording of your contribution

As part of their 21st birthday Radical Retrospectives programme, join Collective Encounters to look back over the past 20 years of cultural change in Liverpool City Region and beyond. Over three themed sessions, they are inviting local people to share memories, experiences and feelings about how things have changed and what they would like to see in the future.

Each session will be led by Collective Encounters artists and participants who bring lived experience in the theme under discussion. Expect a welcoming and open atmosphere, some gentle creative activities, creative material to reflect on from the Collective Encounters archives, and plenty of opportunities to chat and share.

Thursday 24 July, 10am-12pm, Metal Liverpool, Tunnel Road, Liverpool L7 6ND

Session theme: race, diaspora and community
Lead artists: Michelle Richards & Aidan Jolly

To book, visit here

Mastered are offering over 60 hours (spread across 10 weeks) of fully funded business mentoring for creative freelancers and small business owners in Liverpool City Region (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral).

You’ll learn how to:

• Attract more clients
• Build your brand & social presence
• Nail your marketing & fee negotiation
• Manage your time more effectively
• Use AI to work more efficiently and productively

…and loads more!

Plus:
You’ll receive mentoring for 6 months after the bootcamp to help keep the momentum going.

Cost:
Zero — it’s fully funded by the government.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Aged 19 or over
• Have the right to work in the UK
• Have been a UK resident for the past 3 years
• Able to commit around 6–7 hours per week
• Eligible postcode in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens or Wirral

Start Date:
Aug 11, 2025.

There will be another cohort later in the year.

For more information and to apply: https://join.mastered.com/business_ai_skills

A workshop with ‘I Am Steven Gerrard’ writer Sean McLoughlin on how to let lived experience influence creative output.

Join Tip Tray Theatre and Sean McLoughlin for a free writing workshop that explores transforming personal stories and lived experience into compelling narrative work. Open to writers of all levels, just bring a notebook or laptop, your curiosity, and any ideas or experiences you’re ready to explore!

🗓️Saturday 2nd August, 1:30pm
🎟️ FREE, book through Shakespeare North Playhouse website

Access: If you have any access requirements for the session, please contact maisy@tiptraytheatre.com

Gill Smith is an illustrator based in Liverpool and would welcome opportunities to share her creative skills. Gill has several areas of expertise: children’s book illustration, live drawing at events, murals and creative workshops.

She draws in person or remotely, at events to record information in an accessible and creative way. (Often called visual scribing or graphic recording, for all kinds of events such as conferences, meetings, community gatherings gathering audience feedback.

Why consider live illustration?

It records key ideas and makes content more memorable.
It adds interest and encourages participation. People love to see the drawing unfold.
It is a way of capturing peoples feedback and getting opinions heard – good for project evaluations or capturing post event feedback.
You have shareable images for display, print and online.

Gill is also a children’s book illustrator working with major publishers, Walker Books and authors such as David Almond, Katya Balen and Micheal Rosen. ‘Wild’ has been included on the Summer reading challenge, Story Garden  by The Reading Agency, an initiative spread across libraries and schools nationally. Saving the Butterfly was shortlisted for prestigious awards such as The Klaus Flugge Prize and Yoto Carnegie Prize. Gill can offer illustration related workshops, illustration skills, picture book process, read and draw along and talks and Q and A’s.

Please take a look at e.g.s of live illustration here, www.gillsmithillustration.com and instagram @Draw the Day. Gill’s workshops and book work are here @gillsmithillustration

DaDa has booked in BSL Teacher of the Year John Mancini to deliver a 5-day course for a Signature British Sign Language (BSL) Level 1 qualification.

It has been done successfully by Ad Infinitum in Bristol for many years and DaDa wanted this to happen in Liverpool as places are usually limited and not everyone can afford personally, professionally (and financially) to go away for a whole week. Plus, committing to an academic year of weekly 2-hour sessions can prove a challenge. Details of the course are as follows:

Course: BSL Level 1 (Signature Qualification)
Course Delivery: John Mancini
Venue: Quaker Meeting House, School Lane, Liverpool L1 3BT
Date/Time: 8^th – 12^th September, 10am – 5pm.
Course Fee: £350.00 (which includes assessment fees)
Light refreshments will be provided (drinks/snacks)

To book a place, visit their website here

This course has been booked to coincide with the lead up to International Week of Deaf People 22nd – 26th September and International Day of Sign Languages on 23rd September.

Join Tip Tray Theatre’s Developing Board of Trustees

Tip Tray Theatre is currently recruiting for multiple board roles: Chair, Trustees, and Young Trustees.

Tip Tray Theatre is a disabled led arts organisation based in Knowsley and working across Merseyside. Led by Evan Byrne and Maisy Gordon, they work alongside emerging artists to broaden opportunities for training and professional development.

Since 2021, Tip Tray Theatre has been dedicated to creating theatrical events that provide early career individuals with professional experience while minimising obstacles. Their annual writing competition, What Happens Next?, supports more than 60 creatives every January, including writers, actors, and stage managers.

Tip Tray Theatre also create exciting new theatre with a strong focus on being socially engaged and working with emerging artists to shake up the creative landscape with fresh talent and new perspectives.

For more information, please click here to access their recruitment page.

Closing date: 15 August, except Chair board role, 6 August