YOUNG SOCIAL INNOVATORS:Previous YSI participants can stay involved as social justice advocates while The Irish Timesseeks young social affairs correspondents and photographers

EARLIER THIS year, two groups of students renounced their worldly goods, voluntarily limited their access to water and electricity, and turned their back on the trappings and lures of TV, internet, and mobile phones.

The students won first prize in the Young Social Innovators competition, a project that aims both to raise social awareness and encourage young people to bring about positive change in the world.

From humble origins, YSI’s vision has expanded. The school syllabus allows for a creative burst of innovation in Transition Year, before firmly shunting students back to rote learning for the Leaving Certificate. Co-foun- der Rachel Collier and the YSI team, however, were keen to harness that energy before it dissipated.

“We wanted to put in place mechanisms to enable young people to stay involved after Transition Year,” says Collier.

“We’ve introduced a new programme, where previous participants, aged 16-22, can stay involved with us as social justice advocates, becoming leaders and voices for social change in their communities and the wider world.”

Neil Keane, an 18-year-old who stayed involved in YSI, has become one of these advocates. He explains: “We did a project in Transition Year, comparing the money spent by the government on public schools to that spent on prisons, and argued that if they invested in schools and public programmes, there wouldn’t be a need for prisons.

We won in our category, Making Our World Fair and Just. We got a great taste of changing the world, and we wanted to stay involved, so did smaller projects in fifth and sixth year.”

On at least three occasions a year, the advocates – some in third-level, some in work, and some still in school – meet up and develop other socially innovative projects. Trinity College Dublin medicine student Gary Faughnan, aged 20, was a member of the winning YSI team in 2005 with a project on alcohol abuse, and has stayed involved as an advocate and project judge.

“The advocate idea came about in 2007,” he recalls. “It’s for people who are passionate about the idea of YSI. Anytime the YSI team needs us, we’re there, and we’ll do anything we can to help, including letting people know about YSI, facilitating schools, and offering advice.”

Eimear Kilrane, a teacher at Rathoath Community School in Co Meath, Mount Temple on Malahide Road, says that YSI enables students to bring forward an issue to the wider community, and to bring people together. “Rathoath has one of the biggest youth populations, yet we were lacking in facilities. Through

YSI, the students rallied the community to improve local amenities. The energy from that project is still there: we hope to open a facility in the near future.”

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The Irish Timesin association with Young Social Innovators, is looking for young social affairs correspondents and photographers.

The Young Social Affairs Correspondent will write a short article – no more than 500 words – exploring issues of concern in the areas of health and education, environment and community, human rights and safety, poverty and exclusion, or any special interest theme.

Students can write a piece on the following topics:

The YSI Speak Out Forum: a report on this event, to be held next March, where thousands of young social innovators present issues of concern to them

Your Community: Social issues in the community and how they can be tackled.

For the Young Social Affairs Photographer capture social justice on film. Take a photo that represents your YSI project. Record the energy and ideas of the YSI Speak Out Forum.

Send a photograph that highlights an issue of concern in your community.

The closing date is March 30th. Articles and photos should be e-mailed to transitiontimes@irishtimes.com, or posted to Peter McGuire, Transition Times YSI Competition, Irish Times Building, Tara Street, Dublin 2. Watch this space for some top tips and prize details.

For more information, visit youngsocialinnovators.ie