Social innovators from St Leo’s College win Garda Youth Award

A GROUP of innovative teenagers from St Leo’s College has just scooped a prestigious accolade at this year’s Garda National Youth Award ceremony.

A team from the school’s Young Social Innovators programme picked up the award for the work they’ve done in raising awareness about farm safety. Their project, Alarm on the Farm, was selected for one of just 24 awards that were presented by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at a ceremony in the Midlands Park Hotel, Portlaoise.

Speaking at the ceremony, assistant commissioner for road safety and community engagement Paula Hilman said: “Our Garda National Youth Awards are about recognising the incredible work done by young people in communities all over Ireland for the sake of others. They often don’t get enough credit for the variety of challenges they face in today’s society and particularly for how they responded to the difficulties they encounter, but they support one another and help their communities with great enthusiasm. Each one of this year’s recipients demonstrate all that is wonderful about our young people, and as gardaí we are so proud of their hard work. We hope the Garda National Youth Awards are a fitting acknowledgement of the positive and meaningful contribution that these young people are making to society.” The team from transition year in St Leo’s College worked closely with their science and politics teacher Karen Brennan to develop their farm safety project. The resulting Alarm on the Farm is a first-of-its-kind farm safety campaign, specifically created by young people for young people.

The students dedicated over 180 hours of their free time to researching how and why farm accidents occur, while also educating themselves about the best farm safety practices. Armed with their research, they published a farm safety booklet and a tie-in farm safety video, both of which were disseminated across the country to primary school students.

To support the campaign, students also set up social media platforms to spread their farm safety messages to an even wider audience.

The girls over the moon to garner the prestigious award and are determined to continue raising awareness about farm safety and hopefully prevent accidents and save lives.