Students awarded €12,950 to advance their ideas for bringing about positive change in their communities. 

Students throughout Ireland have been awarded funding totalling €12,950 to advance their ideas for bringing about positive change in their communities as part of their participation in YSI's Den delivered by Young Social Innovators (YSI) in conjunction with the Community Foundation Ireland. 

There was a tremendous amount of innovation and inspiration from YSI Den Teams from all over Ireland. We saw a wide variety of brilliant and thought-provoking ideas from Coolock to Castletownbere. 

The format of the YSI Den is Dragon's Den-style pitching sessions at which the teenagers present their ideas to a panel of representatives, including from Dublin City Council, the Community Foundation for Ireland and EirGrid, to enable them to access Social Impact Fund support to advance their projects. Each team received funding, and some teams also received mentoring and advice from the panellists to continue to develop their social innovation idea. 

“Young people are leaders in addressing many of the challenges facing communities across Ireland. On mental health, biodiversity, equality and climate change, they are successfully setting the agenda.

Powerful themes that were tackled by teams included: 
Dyslexia awareness, Women’s safety in the community, The Pink Tax, Gender Inequality, Farm Safety, Climate change, Public transport, Information on the menstrual cycle, improving the school community, Breast Cancer awareness, Autism in girls, Technology addiction, Fairness and inclusion, Good role models, sustainability and children in need, Food poverty, Gender inequality in sport, Mental health and bullying in schools, Lyme disease awareness. 

The Schools that pitched on the day included: 

• Loreto High School Beaufort, Rathfarnham
• Firhouse Educate Together Secondary School, Firhouse
• Loreto Abbey Dalkey
• Mercy College Coolock
• Eureka Secondary School, Kells
• St Patrick's Classical School, Navan
• Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town
• Rosses Community School, Dungloe
• Scoil Dara, Kilcock
• Colaiste Bhride, Enniscorthy
• Youthreach Wicklow Town     
• Beara Community School, Castletownbere
• Colaiste an Chroi Naofa  Carrignavar
• Terence MacSwiney Community College Knocknaheeney
• St. Brigid's Killarney 
• Colaiste Ide Agus Iosef, Abbeyfeale
• St Brigids Presentation, Killarney

The YSI Den shows how strongly engaged our young people are when it comes to the pressing and relevant issues impacting on people and society today. We are delighted to help advance these inspirational youth-led projects further through the provision of direct support. To date, the YSI Social Innovation Den has provided over €150,000 in grant funding to support youth-led ideas for social change

Thanks to all of our panellists and a massive congratulations to the fantastic YSI Den Teams 2023! Onwards! 

You can see the full list of winners and the amounts they were awarded here.