Always on
This project successfully funded on 7th June 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Empower Youth Social Leaders in NI
Belfast, United Kingdom
£110
raised so far
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Aim
Help a 100% volunteer-led team enable youth-led, arts-based social action and support two young people represent NI at Be The Change, Greece
WHY THIS MATTERS
Young people in Northern Ireland are growing up in a society still shaped by division, inequality and questions about identity and belonging. They also have ideas, creativity and lived experience that can help build a more connected future.
Through Art for Change and Design for Change NI, young people are not treated simply as recipients of programmes. They identify issues that matter to them, imagine what could be different, take action and share what they learn through Feel, Imagine, Do, Share.
Our 2026 Art for Change summer programme was made possible through a £6,845 Arts Council of Northern Ireland grant towards direct artist costs, alongside in-kind support from Queen’s University Belfast. You can learn more about Art for Change and explore the 2026 virtual showcase of the young people’s work. That support enabled the programme itself, but it did not fund the core organisational work required to prepare, coordinate and sustain it. The programme created the pathway from local youth-led action to international representation: two young people from the 2026 cohort will now be selected and supported to carry what they have learned and created onto the global stage.
FROM NORTHERN IRELAND TO GREECE
Be The Change (BTC) is the annual global celebration of the Design for Change movement. Young changemakers from different countries come together to share what they have done, learn from one another and discover that their ideas and actions are part of something much bigger.
We want Northern Ireland represented there by young people themselves — and the opportunity will grow directly from the work already taking place through our 2026 Art for Change cohort.
Two young people will be selected from the 2026 Art for Change cohort and supported to represent Northern Ireland at Be The Change 2026. Their selection will recognise the journeys, ideas and youth-led Stories of Change developed through this year’s programme.
For them, Greece is not simply a trip. It is the final stage of the journey: the chance to stand up, share what young people in Northern Ireland care about and have created, meet peers from around the world, and return with new confidence, ideas and connections.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT WILL MAKE POSSIBLE FOR YOUTH LEADERS
We are continuing to raise funds to support Art for Change / Design for Change NI and to help two young people selected from the 2026 cohort progress from their local programme experience to representing Northern Ireland at Be The Change 2026.
For the Greece delegation, our current high-estimate budget is:
- £2,259 — enables one young person to represent Northern Ireland, including their travel and participation, eduSOIL coordination and the additional coaching needed to prepare them to present/perform and share their work.
- £1,909 — enables their parent/guardian, teacher or youth worker to accompany and supervise them, including travel and eduSOIL coordination.
- £1,909 — enables the Design for Change NI Country Partner team member/authorised representative to attend, coordinate and support the delegates in Greece.
Our planned five-person delegation is two young people, two accompanying adults and one Country Partner representative. With the additional adult registration allowance, the high-estimate delegation budget is £10,350.
WHAT YOUR SUPPORT BRINGS TO A IMMIGRANT FOUNDED NON-PROFIT
Funds raised beyond the £10,350 Greece delegation budget will help eduSOIL meet essential organisational costs for the August 2026–Dec 2027 period — the year in which we prepared, planned and delivered the summer programme, supported the young people emerging from it, and built the pathway to Greece. These costs were not covered by the programme grant and, over the past 12 months, have either been paid for or contributed personally by the non-salaried eduSOIL founder.
This includes:
• telephone and internet expenses
• home office expenses
• accountants’ fees
• volunteer recruitment, training and management
• local and international programme coordination
eduSOIL is volunteer-led and has no core funding. Our team members have not been salaried to do this work. Most of our volunteer team are job-seeking immigrants, who alongside living expenses have UK Immigration fees to pay. The team has been working voluntarily with shared commitment to empowering young people in NI to be social leaders who believe in themselves and their ability to drive positive change. Your donation helps eduSOIL stay alive and continue to do this vital work.
WHY A COUNTRY TEAM MEMBER IS ESSENTIAL
Design for Change NI is part of a global movement and eduSOIL carries the Country Partner responsibility in Northern Ireland. A Country Partner representative needs to be present to coordinate and support the delegation and connect the young people’s work in Northern Ireland with the international Design for Change community.
Young people will travel with their own parent/guardian, teacher or appropriate accompanying adult.
WHY NOW?
The 2026 cohort has already been doing the work. The next step is to select and support two young people to represent Northern Ireland internationally. Travel, family commitments and permissions need to be planned in time, with a decision point by 12 October.
Without funding, young people can do extraordinary work locally and still miss the opportunity to have that work seen and heard internationally.
With your support, they can go from saying “I CAN make a difference” in Northern Ireland to standing alongside young people from across the world and showing what that looks like in action.
Please donate if you can — and share this campaign with someone who believes young people should have the chance to shape the future, not simply inherit it.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made