THE EXAM system and the fear of failure paralyse innovation, Booker prize-winning author Roddy Doyle told the Social Entrepreneurs Ireland Awards last night.
Mr Doyle, who was one of last year’s award winners for Fighting Words, a writing club for children, said innovation was stopped by “the insistence that everything worth learning or knowing can and must be measured objectively, that nothing is of value if it can’t be measured in points”.
He was speaking as awards were presented to this year’s winners, including Aviva Cohen, who developed Neuro Hero after her husband Mike had a stroke and was unable to speak. Her company created apps for mobile phones and PCs to tackle social isolation among people with speech and language difficulties.
Existing therapies involved sitting in isolation and were focused solely on improving the impairment, she said last night.
She wanted to create activities where “not only does the person ... learn to improve their speech but the family members can interact and have fun” and a person can “reconnect with their family” using the software, she said.
Ms Cohen was among three social entrepreneurs to win the top Impact award of €200,000 each to support their solutions to help social challenges.
Another winner was young social entrepreneur James Whelton, who set up the computer-programming club CoderDojo while still in secondary school.
Mr Whelton last night said the clubs were helping to fill a “massive void in the eduction system” as well as helping children socially and the future economy.
The free initiative is taught by volunteer professionals and has over 50 clubs in Ireland and over 100 in other parts of the world.
The third Impact award went to Tony Griffin and Karl Swan, founders of Soar, which delivers programmes to equip young people with positive life skills to help fulfil their potential.
Soar is a “battle cry against that part of us that tells us it will never happen”, Mr Griffin said.
The men were afraid that young people would be the “silent victims” of the recession, but hope their programme can empower them to “live the lives they were meant to live”, Mr Swan said.
Five other entrepreneurs received €35,000 each: Lucy Masterson of Hireland, which seeks job creation pledges; Emma Murphy of the Turning Institute, which offers online therapy; Rachel Cassen and Claire Murphy of Leap, which empowers families with disabilities; Trevor White of City of a Thousand Welcomes, which encourages Dubliners to be tourism ambassadors; and George Boyle of Fumbally Exchange, which provides creative workspaces to professionals.
Seán Coughlan, chief executive of Social Entrepreneurs, said last night that living in a “state of flux was hard” but it offered opportunities for change and to “rethink the sort of country we want to live in”.
