Yorkshire charity which helps children explore creative solutions to climate change at risk of collapse

A Yorkshire-based charity which gives children the opportunity to explore creative solutions to tackling climate change has issued an urgent call for help as it faces collapse.

IVE, which was launched in 1997, runs workshops which aim to help children develop creative thinking skills for issues around climate change, as well as mental health.

The charity was supported by a mix of major funds – including the Arts Council England – until 2023, but has since struggled to retain enough funding to remain viable.

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It has now issued an urgent call for support, including a £20,000 fundraiser, and is exploring options to merge with other groups.

IVE has issued an urgent call for support, including a £20,000 fundraiser.IVE has issued an urgent call for support, including a £20,000 fundraiser.
IVE has issued an urgent call for support, including a £20,000 fundraiser.

Sarah Mumford, senior associate at IVE, said: “Our mission is to develop creative thinking skills and develop creativity in children and young people to help them reach their full potential.

“Its such a good thing, and now is when we need to be developing these independent creative thinkers who could solve all these problems we have going on both locally and globally.

“If we can't merge and don’t get the funding, that's it, it'll be the end of the road, so we’re just having a big fight to try and survive and raise the profile of what we’re doing.”

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The charity employs one full-time member of staff and two part-time members of staff, as well as holding 14 associates.

Organisers said the £20,000 fundraiser, titled Creative Kids Tackling Climate Change, would allow the charity to continue to deliver a series of workshops and remain viable until it can potentially merge with another group or secure more funding.

Ms Mumford added: “We believe that Creative Kids Tackling Climate Change is a great project that will benefit the local community.

"The £20,000 we are hoping to raise through the Crowdfunder will enable us to provide a series of 12 workshops in five schools, led by professional facilitators.

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"During the workshops young people learn about specific problems, like air pollution, fast fashion, food waste or biodiversity loss and use their creativity and imagination to invent new solutions.

“They will work alongside experts in science, technology, arts, sustainability and engineering, finding out about exciting industries and careers dealing with this challenge.”

Through the project, the children involved then present their solutions to experts at a final pitch event and are supported, where possible, to put their ideas into action.

The charity previously organised for ten schools to present their ideas on reducing air pollution to Bradford City Council, with the Council subsequently taking action to reduce vehicle idling outside schools.

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The charity’s fundraiser was launched through Aviva’s Community Fund. Aviva’s Community Foundation will also fund-match any donation up to £250. The fundraiser has currently reached almost £2,000 of the final £20,000 target.

The charity is also applying to a number of other smaller funding pots.

“If we did get a big chunk of money in the short term we’d probably carry on as we are for a little bit, but I think the writing is on the wall in terms of the funding situation,” added Ms Mumford.

"In order to survive, we need to keep putting the bids in so we can work alongside someone else. The crowd funder would give us some work to do after march of next year, but it also makes us attractive enough to merge with another orginisation.”

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Speaking on feedback from prior projects, Ms Mumford said: “When we go into the schools to do the applied creativity labs, the children and the staff love them and they always want us to come back.

“You can see the learning gains; the increases in confidence and teamwork ability, the ability to do non-verbal communication, as well as leadership and creative problem solving.

“The children take those skills and use them forever. Once they know how to do it, any problem they face afterwards they can use the same approach to come up with innovative solutions.”

Speaking on why she believes the IVE sessions are so important, Ms Mumford added: “We don’t have time, to put it bluntly.

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“We are in desperate need of the next generation being able to be creative and come up with solutions to the multitude of real-world problems that are going on and that they're going to face in the future.”

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