The Exit 15 Microfund is a friendly little fund to help community groups put on new events and activities and enable individuals and groups to do something different and showcase it through partners websites and social media platforms. 

Awards of €300 were made to different groups in the Ballyogan area of Dublin 18

who showed an ambition to:

Engage; reach new audiences, participants or volunteers.

Partner; work with other organisations or people that enable all of you to work more effectively as a result of sharing information, skills or pooling resources.

Innovate; use new ideas or approaches in a way that has an impact on your event - fresh thinking that creates value.

Create; creative development in your art and craft form. Events which enable volunteers and participants to develop significantly in terms of their skill levels.

Ballyogan Family Resource Centre

Darkroom Workshops

Family Resource Centre has been operating in Ballyogan for 20 years, working directly with disadvantaged children and families in Ballyogan, supporting them to achieve better outcomes by providing a wide range of targeted services and supports such as affordable childcare, after school’s care, parental and youth support programmes, community based education and training programmes. 

The services have developed to meet the needs of the local community and so the Family Resource Centre have recently we have set up a darkroom with a photographer from their local community.

This micro fund will allow the Family Resource Centre to deliver a series of darkroom workshops where people can learn how through demonstration, to print a black and white photograph. The award money will go towards buying materials for the darkroom, chemicals and paper to do the workshops. There is also a good community interest in photography in the town, and these workshops could lead to the beginning of a photography club for Ballyogan.

Click here for more info on the workshops

Community Exhibition

This micro fund will also allow the Family Resource Centre to hire a trained artist to deliver a workshop for staff, volunteers and other interested participants who work directly with children and young people in the service and host an exhibition of their work as part of the annual Ballyogan Festival that takes place in August 2018.

“The Exit 15 #D18creatives and Voluntary Arts Ireland initiatives that have taken place in recent times have really shown us the value of having community arts programmes and having the expertise of professional artists like Mark Storor and Michael Fortune has enriched our community.”

Gaelscoil Sliabh Rua 

After being relocated into its new home in Ballyogan, Gaelscoil Sliabh soon found out that the school has a high proportion of students who are not within walking distance and so traffic became a huge issue in the area. 

As a way to creatively address the problem, the Parents’ Committee of Gaelscoil Shliabh Rua began looking for ways to encourage more students to walk to school and so a Walking Bus was set up, supported by a core of 8 parent-volunteers.

The Walking Bus is a set time and place for students to meet and, with the supervision of adult volunteers, walk into school. The Walking Bus is a creative way to reduce traffic and to model community involvement to school children. It teaches personal responsibility, road safety, and give kids a way to interact with their peers and with their community. 

This micro fund will allow Gaelscoil Sliabh Rua to host a Walking Bus Parade involving students to make instruments, hats and other decorations and generally get more and more excited about walking to school. This parade will also conincide with Ballyogan Festival 2018.

Exit 15 is a partnership programme between Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and Voluntary Arts Ireland working with people and organisations living, working and based in the Ballyogan area. It is funded under the Arts Council’s Invitation to Collaboration Scheme 2017 and Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council.

To find out more about Exit 15 projects. visit the Exit 15 Facebook Page.