Young Social Innovators find their voices at 'Speak Out' event

Self-awareness and self-defence were strong themes among stage performances by teens showcasing their work to highlight social issues.

More than 40 schools from around Munster gave a flavour of their projects for the Young Social Innovators (YSI) programme at Cork City Hall over the last two days, covering issues as diverse as homophobic bullying and rural isolation to road and water safety.

@YSINow great morning at the cork speak out some great projects. Learned a lot today

— choices (@choicesbcs) March 18, 2014

Those taking the stage yesterday morning had a sense of self-awareness, including the lads from Coláiste an Chraoibhín, Fermoy, with their project ‘No Ifs or Buts, Check Your Nuts’ about testicular cancer, which they said is most common among males aged 15 to 35.

“Two boys here today are likely to have the disease at some stage in their lives,” they told the curious audience, before launching into their ‘Check Your Goolies’ song.

One of four projects by girls of Mount Mercy College in Bishopstown dealt with sexual assault and self-defence.

They are developing an app with which a user can send an SOS text message and their location to chosen contacts if they are sexually assaulted. They drove home the message with a re-enactment of an attack on a teenage girl, but said an app like theirs and self-defence lessons like those given in transition year at the school could help prevent such situations.

For the ‘Bet Fear’ project by Carrigaline Community School students, the dangers associated with teenage gambling were highlighted, while girls from Christ King Secondary School in Douglas had a road safety message to share, particularly for pedestrians and cyclists.

“We became aware of the issue when our classmate was knocked down on the way to school. Fortunately, she was okay but this inspired us to take action,” said the narrator of their road safety mini-drama.

Positive mental health projects were showcased by students of Sacred Heart Secondary School, among four entries from the Clonakilty college at the YSI ‘Speak Out’ event, while water safety was the theme of projects from Newtown School from Waterford City and St Augustine’s College in Dungarvan. Tarbert Comprehensive School from Co Kerry had a project about rural isolation among three staged yesterday, and students of the Mahon Youthreach programme in Cork showcased their ‘Do You Need Somebody?’ project.

The presentations were a chance to show off the social caring of young people, who YSI co-founder Sr Stanislaus Kennedy said are too often dismissed by society as being self-absorbed.

“What we’ve witnessed here are young people who are completely engaged in society and prepared to play an active role in resolving some of our most pressing social issues.”

The YSI All-Ireland Speak Out tour continues in Athlone, Belfast, Dublin and Drogheda over the next week, supported by the Vodafone Ireland Foundation, whose Natalie Hodgess said the quality and scale of young people’s initiatives are hugely impressive. More than 350 projects were undertaken for YSI last year, and Over 63,000 students have taken part since 2001, but chief executive and co-founder Rachel Collier said the aim is to reach 100,000 by 2015.

Dozens of teams will be invited to take part in May in the annual showcase of YSI, hoping to succeed students from Eureka Secondary School in Kells, Co Meath, who were named Young Social Innovators of the Year in 2013 for promoting organ donation among teenagers.