Creative TY Connections

Impact Report 2025

Creative TY Connections (CTYC) is a multi-modular, innovative, community education programme that brings together adults with disabilities and transition year students for a mutual learning and development. It integrates financial, digital and interpersonal skills training while developing connections and friendships. TY students participate in CTYC to support the 1:1 learning needs of individuals with disabilities, ensuring an inclusive and collaborative learning environment. Their role is to facilitate engagement, foster connections, and enhance accessibility within the programme. This programme counters the isolation and disconnection adults with disabilities face when they leave secondary education. It builds confidence and a sense of belonging, empowering individuals with disabilities through creative engagement and acts as a pathway to community education by creating community ties and by supporting the development of practical skills, elevating the potential for socioeconomic engagement.

Our 2025 Impact report celebrates the profound impact of CTYC to date and presents a vision for its future.

As you read this report, we hope you are inspired by the voices and experiences of our learners. We invite you to join us in championing a programme that transforms lives and enriches communities.

Click the red button below to watch our 2025 Impact report video or scroll down to read the full report.

An Easy read version is also available below.

We are absolutely delighted that Creative TY Connections was featured in The Irish Times Education section on March 11th.

It was fantastic to have this coverage on the programme just days following the launch of our Creative TY Connections Impact report. This recognition further highlights the impact of the programme and the importance of fostering inclusivity and providing equal opportunities for education.

A huge thank you to The Irish Times and Sylvia Thompson for a fantastic article and shining a spotlight on the programme and helping to spread its impact.

Click the button below to read the online article.

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Minister Anne Rabbitte surrounded by TY students in school uniforms and Creative TY Connections participant. They are all looking at course content on an Ipad
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Group photo of participants, TY students, and programme teacher. They are sitting and standing on the steps of a building.
Programme participant and TY student are both sitting at a table. There is an open Ipad in front of them and a notebook. They are reviewing a course lesson.
Group photo of Creative TY Connections programme participants, TY students, and support staff. They are in three rows and the participants are holding up certificates of completion.
Close up photo of a participant in the Creative TY Programme participant.
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Creative TY Participant and facilitator sitting at a table with a open laptop and microphone in front of them. They are recording during a class.
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Creative TY Connections Modules

Everyday IT

Every Day IT is a six-week programme which highlights the importance of digital inclusion and how it can benefit individuals ensuring that everyone, including those with challenging abilities, has equal access to effectively use digital technologies, providing and promoting digital literacy and skills development.

By promoting digital inclusion, this programme offers opportunities to gain access to educational resources, employment opportunities, social connections and various services that will enhance their quality of life.

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Money Management

Money management is a six-week programme that aims to improve the participants’ understanding of money and develop their money management skills in a fun and safe environment.

The course will raise each participant’s level of financial awareness and encourage more future-focused behaviour such as planning and saving. This will better equip individuals to manage money more confidently and independently. 

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Upskilling for Employment

Upskilling for employment is a 10-week programme where the participants go through a series of workshops that address the daily challenges participants face using core technologies and skills used in the job environment today.

The participants go through a series of workshops that cover the areas of; daily problems they face while using technology, life and interview skills, communicating clearly, cyber security, setting up an email account, and creating a video CV.

Sustainable Steps

This course supports the development of skills that contribute to more sustainable living. It creates an understanding of how our modern lives affect the health of the planet and people around the world It encourages learners to creatively and collectively respond to sustainability problems.

Creative TY Connections Salesforce Showcase, 2024

In February 2024, Connections Arts Centre shared the impact and value of the Creative TY Connections Programme, at an event hosted at Salesforce Tower Dublin. Featured were TY students and participants from the programme, who shared their experiences and the impact participating in the programme had on them.

We also had notable speakers; Former Minister of State at the Department of Health, Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth Anne Rabbitte, Salesforce Country Leader Carolan Lennon, Founder & CEO of Connections Arts Centre (CAC) Miriam Spollen, Government CIO at the Office of the Government Barry Lowry, and CIO of Children’s Health Ireland Prof. Neil O’Hare, Speaking about the value and importance of community and digital inclusion and the importance of supporting unique programmes like Creative TY Connections.

Video from Creative TY Connections showcase event at Salesforce Dublin