Groups across Louth encouraged to apply to national €1 million fund

The Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Programme Office, supported by SOLAS, has announced its call for community partners across Louth and Meath to apply for key funding to address local and national unmet literacy needs through its €1 million national Collaboration and Innovation Fund 2026.

The funding call was officially launched by the Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Marian Harkin TD in Dublin. 

€1 million in funding will enable community partners across the Louth Meath region and Ireland, to access important funding to reach adults with unmet literacy, numeracy, digital and financial literacy needs and to create literacy-friendly communities.

Over 700,000 people in Ireland have unmet literacy needs. In today’s world, literacy is much more than reading and writing and many people have unmet numeracy, digital and financial literacy needs. This means that daily tasks can be a struggle such as filling in a form, reading instructions on medicines, adding up a bill, helping children with homework or searching online for information. 

In the Louth and Meath region, 2025 ALL Collaboration and Innovation funding supported the successful rollout of a project called Health Kicks. This initiative brought the Homeless Street League to County Louth, and created an innovative platform that combined structured physical activity with health education to support individuals experiencing homelessness. Delivered in collaboration with the Irish Homeless Street League, Dundalk FC, the FAI, and local Homeless Service Providers, this initiative offered weekly football sessions as a means of fostering inclusion, improving health outcomes, and building confidence.

The primary objective of the project was to break down barriers in health literacy, enabling participants to better navigate and access essential resources. Each football session included a short workshop or discussion focusing on key health topics such as dental hygiene, sexual health, self-care, mental health, and nutrition. 

By embedding health education into an engaging and supportive environment, the project empowered participants to make informed decisions that enhance their quality of life, while addressing broader challenges of social exclusion and isolation faced by individuals experiencing homelessness. Through the structure and community focus of the league, participants developed teamwork and social skills, creating pathways to local supports which fostered a sense of belonging. This initiative helped to bridge gaps in health literacy and to promote physical and mental wellbeing, by using an innovative model that integrated sport and education, and provided a transformative experience for one of the most vulnerable groups in the local community. 

Niamh McShane, Regional Literacy Coordinator, at Louth Meath ETB said:

“In 2025, several successful and transformative projects were delivered across Louth and Meath regions, thanks to the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund. This funding helped to support learners with unmet literacy needs in Dundalk, Drogheda, Navan and Kells. The funding helped support communities and vulnerable adults, and promoted local literacy services, while helping to reduce stigma around unmet literacy needs. 

“Through these partnerships, we have been able to reach more people effectively, enabling learners to build confidence with literacy and participate more fully in society. I encourage more partners across both Louth and Meath regions to work together to create community initiatives that can help reduce the number of people with unmet literacy, digital literacy and numeracy needs.”  

Yvonne McKenna, Director of the ALL Programme Office at SOLAS said:

"The ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund is playing a vital role in working towards ensuring that all adults in Ireland have the literacy to meet their needs. The projects that the Fund supports have a real impact in making the Louth Meath region a more literacy-aware and literacy-friendly place. 

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“The Fund enables the delivery of a vibrant and diverse range of programmes that are helping to change the lives of adults with unmet literacy needs in Ireland. The fund is aimed at those most at risk of having literacy needs including older adults, members of the Traveller community, migrants, people parenting alone, and early school leavers."

Further information on the Fund and how to apply is available at https://www.adultliteracyforlife.ie/fund/ 

The closing date for the fund is 12pm on Thursday 22 January 2026