Gaeilge
The Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Programme Office, supported by SOLAS, has announced its call for community partners across Donegal 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 Donegal 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 Donegal region, 2025 ALL Collaboration and Innovation funding supported the successful rollout of a ‘Manage My Home’ course. This was a collaboration between Donegal County Council and Donegal ETB. It was for people who had recently moved into their own home and supported them to build their financial literacy skills. Six courses ran across the county, and a curriculum for the course was developed by the Learning for Living Programme.
Participants learned how to use price comparison websites, analyse their electricity bills, and money management tips, among many other skills.
Adele McElhinney, Regional Literacy Coordinator at Donegal ETB, said: “In 2025, several successful and transformative projects were delivered across the Donegal region, thanks to the ALL Collaboration and Innovation Fund. This funding helped to support learners with unmet literacy needs in Buncrana, Letterkenny, Ballyshannon, and Gaoth Dobhair.”
“The funding helped support communities and vulnerable adults and promote local literacy services. This helps to reduce the 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 in the Donegal region 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 Donegal region a more literacy-aware and literacy-friendly place.
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 12.00pm on Thursday, 22 January 2026.
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Press release supplied by SOLAS