CBS Charleville scoop YSI Challenge Award
AN enterprising team of brainy boffins from the CBS Secondary in Charleville is among less than a dozen teams left vying for bragging rights in a prestigious national schools competition.
Their ‘Ditch Your Carbon Cup Print’ initiative, a thought-provoking social awareness project aimed at reducing waste, has made it to the final of the 2017 Young Social Innovators ( YSI) challenge.
Now in its 17th year, the YSI Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in youth-led innovation for social..
The YSI Challenge sets schools from across the country the goal of coming up with innovative methods of addressing pressing social issues such as farm safety, human trafficking, mental health and protecting the environment.
Following a 2,000 mile ‘Speak Out’ tour of the country during which more than 7,000 students from 456 schools presented their projects to judges, just 11 Challenge Award winning teams, including the one from CBS, have been selected to go forward to this years final.
The teams will be invited to present their projects to a panel of judges at the YSI awards taking place at Dublin’s Convention Centre on Thursday, May 11. The overall winner will receive the coveted 2017 Young Social Innovators of the Year crown.
The main aim of the CBS ‘Ditch Your Carbon Cup Print’ is to reduce carbon emissions (CO2) in the locality by encouraging people use their own reusable cups when buying take-out beverages in garages and shops. The idea is that this will substantially reduce the number of disposable cups send to waste.
As well as planning to hold an awareness week in Charleville to highlight the issue, the team is also researching the availability of a collapsible cup that can be used in place of what many people regard as the inconvenient standard reusable cups.
In addition to the Challenge Award, teams have been honoured in other YSI categories, with the Christian Brothers School from Mitchelstown scooping a Spotlight Social Entrepreneurs Award for their innovative ‘Concussion Discussion’ project.
The CEO and co-founder of YSI, Rachel Collier, congratulated all of the winners, saying they were a “true demonstration” of creativity and passion of young people and their ability to use their talents to “create social value”.