Telling it like it is

The Irish Times/Young Social Innovators competition gives TY students a chance to speak out on a range of social issues

THE YOUNG Social Innovators competition is now in full swing, and the Speak Out events have been offering students a chance to present details of their projects to the YSI panel, invited guests, teachers and their peers.

But these were no simple Powerpoint presentations. At the Dublin Speak Out in Griffith College earlier this month, one group of students dressed up as monsters and performed a dance to highlight the dangers of drugs, while another put on a mini-play about “Eddie”, a 14-year-old boy whose development is severely stunted by prolonged cannabis use. Another, replete with blood-stained clothes, acted out a fatal stabbing to bring attention to the problem of knife crime.

Students in Dominican College, Wicklow, surveyed students from their own girls’ school, the local boys’ school, and a nearby mixed school. “We asked them to write about their own problems: with boys, drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, bullying, or anything that concerned them,” says TY student Emer Maguire (15). “We know that we need to help ourselves. Talking to a parent or teacher isn’t the same as talking to a peer. We’re planning on putting together a book of the essays so students can see that everyone goes through the same problems.”

Social entrepreneur Caroline Casey, who established Kanchi (kanchi.org) to change what we think about disability, sits on the board of several NGOs. She spoke to the students at Griffith College: “Paraphrasing a great quote, there are those of us who dream at night, in the dusty recesses of our mind. When we wake in the day we find that it was vanity. But there are others of us, those of us who dream in the day, with our eyes wide open. And we’re the dangerous ones. We’re dangerous because we make things happen. You’re dangerous, fantastically wondrously dangerous. And it is way better to be a dangerous dreamer than a daydreamer.”

THE IRISH TIMES/ YOUNG SOCIAL INNOVATORS COMPETITION

The Irish Times,in association with Young Social Innovators, is looking for young social affairs correspondents and photographers. The deadline for this competition has been extended to Thursday April 14th at 5pm.

The winning article and photograph will be published in The Irish Times.

YOUNG SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT

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:

YSI projects

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

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

YOUNG SOCIAL AFFAIRS PHOTOGRAPHER

Capture social justice on film:

Take a photograph 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

Articles and photos should be marked “Irish Times/YSI Competition” and e-mailed to transitiontimes@irishtimes.com, or posted to Irish Times/YSI Competition, Young Social Innovators, 3 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 youngsocialinnovators.ie

Reporting on the realities of life

Jamie Smyth, Social Affairs correspondent withThe Irish Times , talks about his job

'Working as social affairs correspondent for The Irish Timesis hugely challenging but also very rewarding. I know if I do my job well I can highlight some of the systematic failures that cause real-life problems for some of the most vulnerable people in society. This hopefully can lead to change.

“The areas I cover are diverse. Child protection, disability rights, elderly rights, addition, migration and the rights of minority groups such as Travellers all fall within my area of responsibility.

“Like most reporting jobs, part of the work is inevitably crisis management. Reacting to events, such as the publication of the 100-page report into the death of Tracey Fay, means you have to get on top of complex issues very quickly.

“But it is also very important to have a good nose for news. This means focusing on problems, particularly systematic failures by the State or other organisations, which negatively affect people. This could be anything ranging from a lack of public resources for the Limerick Regeneration project to a company’s policy of discriminating against foreign workers.

“Interviewing people who are excluded from mainstream society, such as homeless or drug addicts, means you have to approach issues and people sensitively. Breaking interesting stories is the goal for all journalists, but this must be balanced with the necessity not to exploit vulnerable individuals.”