Throughout January Young Social Innovators held a series of Leadership workshops  for members of the YSI Advocate Teams taking part in the Centre of Social Innovators Programme. These were held in Dublin, Carrick-on-Shannon and Cork and involved almost 200 young people responsible for driving social innovation within their school communities.

Students worked in teams to discuss future developments and set short and long term goals

The YSI Advocates are generally Fourth or Fifth Year students who work throughout the year to inspire others within their school and wider community to become involved and use their creativity to make a difference for the good of others through volunteering, civic action, community service and social innovation.

The YSI Advocates work to build an understanding of what social issues other people in their school community care about, help to initiate and develop various action projects through the year and build greater recognition of all of the hard work being done by people throughout their Centre of Social Innovators. 

Twenty schools around Ireland are participating in this programme in 2013 which seeks to maximise opportunities for young people to get involved in social innovation.