The B!G Idea Watch video

The B!G Idea is a free 12-week creative education programme that empowers 15-19 year olds with in-demand creative thinking skills.

The B!G Idea is a free multi-award-winning, creative educational programme that helps 15-19 year olds to develop game changing creative skills like problem solving, resilience, empathy, critical thinking, research, communication and collaboration. These critical skills will help them through their education, life and work.

Students use these new skills to develop innovative solutions ...

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The B!G Idea is a free multi-award-winning, creative educational programme that helps 15-19 year olds to develop game changing creative s...

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Join the communities already benefitting from starting a The B!G Idea

You'll get guides and resources on how to bring this idea to life.

There is no funding available for this idea, but these resources will still help to make your project happen!

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“We all know as teachers that it’s hard to get something that’s engaging, interactive and creative all into a structured lesson. The B!G Idea has done so much work for us that it makes our life teaching much, much easier. I think that the program...

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The B!G Idea
Mark Danaher
TY Teacher
Desmond College
Limerick

How to start a project on ChangeX

  • 1

    Create your project page

    Click the green start button to register and set up your project page. It’s quick, free and easy.

  • 2

    Complete a 30 Day Challenge

    Complete simple steps in 30 days to get your project off the ground.

  • 3

    Activate your project

    Follow the 5 Step Guide and your action plan to bring the project to life.

  • 4

    Share impact

    Share impact by posting a summary and photos and completing a survey.

Great for

  • Secondary school Transition Year teachers or Youthreach leaders
  • Teachers and Youthreach leaders who are keen to engage students in creativity and innovation and make a life-long difference
  • Teachers and Youthreach leaders who are looking to deliver a creative programme in curriculum time
  • Teachers and Youthreach leaders who want to learn more about creativity and innovation for themselves

The B!G Idea project essentials

5 Step Guide

  • Register online with The B!G Idea
  • Attend a short online CPD session
  • Set up your teacher dashboard
  • Receive The B!G Idea materials
  • Download the lesson plans and get started

Time

Suggested: 2 classes per week for 12 weeks. All resources are digitally formatted with two lessons per week. The adaptable format can be used for either a 40-minute class or a 1-hour class with teacher prompts and all lesson plans included.

Resources

More information on how to get started and any resources shared by the The B!G Idea

Meet the Social Innovator

Welcome to The B!G Idea on ChangeX, we can’t wait to work with you! Our 12 week programme is democratising access to in-demand creative skills for all young people. It can be delivered by teachers from any subject discipline and we provide you with all the teaching resources and lessons you need to take part, as well as access to a peer learning community to support you. With a few simple steps your students can join our 2023 programme and gain new skills, interact with industry professionals, connect learning from other subjects and gain confidence in tackling the biggest challenges in the world.

Fiona Byrne, Head of Education, The B!G Idea

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Why a 30 day challenge?

    The 30 Day Challenge was developed by our Team based on our experience working with communities. We’ve learned that the first weeks are critical to build momentum and get off to a good start with any community project. Teams who complete these steps within the first month are much more likely to successfully complete their project!

    The Challenge is a series of simple steps that each applicant has to complete to get their project off the ground and unlock funding, if there is funding currently available for that idea in your region. Steps include watching a video and/or reading content, having a call with a ChangeX team member, forming a team so that you have support, having your first team meeting, sharing a team photo, and sharing a project action plan.

  • What can funding be used for?

    Once funding is received it can be used to cover direct set-up costs of the new community project. For example space rental, insurance fees, seeds and planting materials, tools, training fees; pretty much any materials you might need for a project that benefits your community.

    Funds cannot be used for the costs of work that has already been carried out, costs unrelated to the setup and maintenance of the new project, payments to group members for their work on the project. Funds can’t be used for the promotion of religious causes, non-charitable activities, sponsorship or fundraising events. Please read the terms and conditions for further details.

  • How do I know if there is funding available?

    On idea pages, if there is funding available for the idea in your region you will see “Funding available” and the region listed in the turquoise box. When you first login you will also see a green banner at the top of the screen saying “live funds near you” if there is funding available in your region. The ChangeX homepage will feature those live funds near you.

    A note on the waitlist: when all the funding has been allocated to applicants, new applicants will go on a waitlist. If some applicants that are in the fund don’t successfully complete the 30 Day Challenge their funding will be released and can be then allocated to those on the waitlist. To see if you are going on a waitlist check the main fund page, ideas fully allocated will have the note “Join the waitlist” instead of “Apply to start”.

  • What is ChangeX?

    ChangeX is a platform that connects communities to proven ideas and funding.

    By empowering local changemakers with proven ideas from social innovators and accessible funding from our partners, we aim to build healthier, more inclusive and sustainable communities. Our work is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and together with our partners, we aim to impact 1 billion people globally by 2030.

    • Communities: Get the funding, resources and support you need to start impactful projects in your community.
    • Social innovators: Connect with local changemakers, access funding to scale your idea, and impact more communities globally.
    • Funders: Fund the themes and regions they care most about, with measurable impact, and at global scale.

    We believe that by bringing the best social innovations and the world’s changemakers together in a shared community, we can accelerate the spread of innovations across the world and have a bigger impact. Together we aim to unleash the potential of changemakers by enabling collaboration, by sharing knowledge and resources, by connecting changemakers across different disciplines and innovations and by opening up access to the world’s best proven social innovations to everyone.

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