Young people are much more engaged in the world they live in than they are given credit for, social campaigner Sr Stanislaus Kennedy has said.
Sr Stanislaus, founder of Young Social Innovators, said the fact that 20,000 young people had participated in the scheme since it was introduced in 2002 showed the level of commitment they were bringing to their communities and society.
Young Social Innovators was co-founded by Sr Stanislaus and Rachel Collier to develop social awareness and activism among young people.
It was set up in response to a decline in volunteering and concerns that there was no social awareness education in schools.
Sr Stanislaus said that since its introduction teenagers who have participated in it have established youth clubs and playgrounds, bought defibrillators and other equipment for their schools and communities, and have implemented award-winning awareness programmes on issue such as mental health, road safety and alcohol abuse.
Sr Stanislaus was speaking at the first of eight Speak Out forums which will be taking place around the country.
Other events are scheduled to take place in Cork, south Dublin, Fingal, Waterford, Louth, Sligo and Galway.
She told an audience of 400 teenagers from the Leinster area yesterday that young people participating in the forum were looking at Ireland and seeing that "things are not right". They were looking to change them.
The Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and chief whip Tom Kitt, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Paddy Burke, and entrepreneur Bill Cullen, who is the president of the Irish Youth Foundation, all attended yesterday's forum. It was held in Griffth College in Dublin.
Ten schools participated in the forum yesterday.
They perform sketches relating to areas that concerned them, including immigration, depression, domestic violence, road safety and social justice.
The teenagers will continue to develop their projects over the coming months.
They will then present their final recommendations on their chosen issue at the Young Social Innovators Showcase, which takes place in the RDS on May 7th and May 8th.
