Staff and volunteers at three charities in Northern Ireland are celebrating after their organisations were awarded £86,000 in grants to expand and evolve programmes that help create career opportunities in the creative industries for local people.
Hope 4 Life NI, Nerve Centre and Newtownabbey Arts & Cultural Network were awarded the grants by the Regional Creatives Fund, launched by Amazon, and plan to use the funding to support hundreds of people from underserved communities in Northern Ireland.
Hope 4 Life NI received £29,500, Newtownabbey Arts & Cultural Network received £30,000 and Nerve Centre secured £26,800 as part of the Regional Creatives Fund.
The Regional Creatives Fund aims to increase access to careers in the creative industries for people from underserved communities. Creative Access, the UK’s leading inclusivity organisation in the creative industries, defines underserved communities as a population proven to be under-represented1 in the sector.
Addressing local needs
Newtownabbey Arts & Cultural Network uses creative and innovative arts programmes to support those that find creative learning as important as traditional academic learning. The charity will use its £30,000 grant to fund additional tutors, allowing its team to start its ‘New Relaunch Project’ – a programme that will provide young people with the ability to engage in non-academic education as many feel alienated from academic learning. Working in collaboration with Future Screens NI, the organisation is helping participants develop professional work portfolios – an alternative to conventional qualifications that better reflects the skills and creativity of each individual.
Hope 4 Life NI, a prevention and early intervention mental health charity operating across Northern Ireland, has secured a £29,500 Regional Creatives Fund to expand its Uberheroes® programme. The 18-week programme uses highly creative and innovative arts to support children and young people in areas of high deprivation and need, helping them to use the highly innovative and creative Uberheroes® comics to digitally design their own Uberheroes® comic characters and designs.
The Uberheroes® represent all the positive characteristics that protect mental health, while the Villains represent negative emotional, social, and mental health challenges affecting children and young people in Northern Ireland. The programme targets people who are four times less likely to work in creative industries or achieve third-level education than their peers.
Since its launch, Uberheroes® has reached more than 54,000 young people. The Regional Creatives Fund grant will enable Hope 4 Life NI to expand their portfolio further, providing vital creative pathways for young people at risk of experiencing mental health challenges.
Nerve Centre, Northern Ireland’s leading creative media arts organisation, has secured Regional Creatives Fund support to launch its new Unreal Engine Academy, an intensive training programme in real-time 3D production for young people.
Founded in 1990 in Derry~Londonderry as a creative outlet for youth excluded from traditional arts, Nerve Centre now engages over 120,000 people annually through festivals, screenings, community initiatives, and award-winning education programmes across music, film, animation, and digital media.
The Unreal Engine Academy will train 20 young people aged 16-19 each year in industry-demanded skills for careers in games, animation, film, TV, and virtual production. Unreal Engine is widely used across gaming, broadcast, advertising, architecture, and immersive media – with global demand for skilled practitioners accelerating rapidly.
The programme will reduce barriers for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, increase representation, and provide a vital pipeline of local talent for Northern Ireland’s growing screen industries.
The £26,800 Regional Creatives Fund grant will cover facilitation costs, travel bursaries, equipment, and access to cutting-edge virtual production spaces for all participants.
“It’s fantastic to receive this grant from the Regional Creatives Fund, everyone at Hope 4 Life NI is delighted to receive this brilliant support enabling us to add a career pathway project, thanks to Amazon,” said Dee Nixon, Founder, CEO & Creative Programme Director at Hope 4 Life NI.
“This funding will make a real difference to the lives of young people who have so much talent but often feel excluded from traditional learning environments,” said Dee Crooks, Project Manager for Newtownabbey Arts & Cultural Network. “Through creative technology, game development, music, and film, we’re helping them build confidence, professional skills, and real career opportunities. We’re incredibly grateful to Amazon’s Regional Creative Fund for their belief in our work and in the future of our young creatives.”
“To have the support of Amazon and the Regional Creatives Fund judges has given us a huge boost, and we’re excited to expand our services and increase our reach for the people in our community who need us,” said David Lewis, Nerve Centre Director of Communications & Development.
“Hope 4 Life NI, Nerve Centre and Newtownabbey Arts & Cultural Network do incredible work in the community, and we were impressed by their commitment to upskilling people in underserved communities for careers in creative industries,” added Paul Firth, Director, Global Music Industry, Amazon Music and Regional Creatives Fund judge. “Amazon is passionate about creating opportunities for people in Northern Ireland to have access to creative industry careers and we’re excited to support these brilliant charities as they expand their programmes to have an even greater impact on the local community.”
Grants were awarded by an independent judging panel. The panel included senior leaders from Amazon, The National Theatre, Creative Wales, Arts Council England, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter.
Funding applications were assessed across five key areas. Strong proposals reflected the fund’s spirit with energy, optimism, and a clear creative purpose; delivered real impact through skills, access, and industry links; showed a smart, achievable plan with confident delivery; centred inclusion by amplifying underrepresented voices; and built on existing programmes to grow what’s already working.
Additional Amazon support
In addition to financial support, the Regional Creatives Fund will also use Amazon’s network of creative industry professionals to offer charities pro bono upskilling programmes for their organisations as well as their beneficiaries – including mentoring, work experience, placement opportunities, and digital training. Support will be provided by creative minds from Amazon Music, Prime Video, Amazon Games, and more.
Amazon has invested over £4.2 billion in the UK’s creative industries since 2010, with over 2,000 people permanently working across our Film and TV, music and audio, books and publishing, fashion, and gaming businesses, and supporting 16,000 additional jobs.
Amazon’s creative industries footprint extends across the entire UK: from acquiring the historic Bray Film Studios in Berkshire last year, which will house the production of the next season of Citadel; to the long-term contract with Shepperton Studios for exclusive use of new state-of-the-art production facilities at the Surrey studios where The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is currently filming; Guy Ritchie’s Young Sherlock in Wales; Harlan Coben’s Lazarus in Manchester; productions at First Stage Studios and Leigh Studios in Edinburgh; and multiple productions on location in and around London such as the live action movie Masters of the Universe.
The Amazon Literary Partnership has been awarding grants to inspiring non-profit literary organisations, writing centres and community engagement programmes groups since it was first launched in the UK six years ago. While each has a different focus, all have a shared goal of uplifting and offering opportunities to aspiring writers at any stage of their creative journey, and empowering those from underrepresented communities to experience and contribute to the magic of storytelling through the written word.
Amazon Music is committed to expanding access to UK music talent through a series of targeted initiatives. Partnerships with organizations including the BRIT Trust, Amplify, and the Association for Independent Music support new creative professionals entering the industry. The Step-Up Fund, a collaboration with the Featured Artists Coalition, will launch its fourth year in 2025. This fund provides financial support to emerging independent artists by offering development grants. Since its inception, Step-Up has distributed £250,000 to more than 30 UK musicians, including both bands and solo artists across multiple genres. These grants enable artists to fund new recordings, touring costs, marketing campaigns, PR activities, video production, and content creation.
As part of its global strategy to shape a more inclusive audio-storytelling industry, Audible is partnering with multiple institutions in the UK to support creative development programmes, from funding scholarships and classes at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), to sponsoring the Barbican Young Poets Program and Women’s Prize for Fiction Discoveries Programme.