irelands inspiration for tomorrow

Inspiration HandbookMichael Browne

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I. BUSINESS & INNOVATION

II. ART, CRAFT & CULTURE

III. YOUTH & EDUCATION

IV. CHARITABLE GIVING

Since the collapse of the global economy in 2007 our country has taken an economic battering. The demise of our construction and banking system has meant that our short lived and newfound wealth has all but vanished into thin air.

When material excesses have been stripped away we have to pose the question, what values define us as a nation. What are our standout qualities? What makes us unique, individual and so endearing to the world at large?

This inspiration handbook is a compilation of the traits, qualities and resources that we have at our disposal which makes being Irish a badge of honor to be worn proudly. It is a vision of the future and portrays some ideas that will project our country prosperously forward without loosing sight of our core values. The ideas have been divided into the following sections.

From Gloom to Bloom:Inspiring Initiatives for the Ireland of tomorrow.

I. Business & Innovation


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1. Medibook - A Medical Facebook

During the past year I have unfortunately had a close family member as an in-patient in a number of different hospitals for an extended period. Having witnessed firsthand, the much-maligned Irish health service I began to think of ways that might improve its efficiency. I found that one of the more frustrating aspects of the service is the flow of information from one hospital to another. Information and patient history appears to be drip fed in an inefficient way mostly through an inadequate email technology. As well as this patients can only receive their own personal medical history by posting a hand written letter to the hospitals admissions department, paying an administration fee and waiting up to six weeks for the records to arrive. Surely access to ones own records, in this day and age is a right and not a paid-for luxury.

My idea is to create a website that allows a patient to create a profile to document their social history, family history, symptoms, medications, procedures and diseases by having their own personalized profile.

It would feature a function where they can add family members to link profiles so that a complete genetic history may be recorded. This medical social network would also have an area for healthcare professionals such as doctors, consultants, physiotherapists etc to input data for easy access and future review. The idea is to make this concept the medical equivalent to Facebook, a social media medical chronological recorder.


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2. Start-Up Renaissance

Since the 2009 financial meltdown media punditry in this country almost takes pleasure in raving about the extended great global depression. The time has come to discard the self-pity mentality and begin our national economic renaissance by helping Ireland’s highest impact; highest potential start-ups launch and succeed immediately.

This idea takes inspiration form RTE’s Dragons Den series but has a more longitudinal focus with the state ultimately acting as venture capitalist for start up endeavors.

It involves creating a startup accelerator using an online/offline competition format that would vet start-ups for impact and potential. The top 10 start-ups in the annual competition would receive twelve months of free office space, state funded training and entrepreneurial mentorship with the top few dozen splitting a cash prizes and an in-kind benefits package including office equipment or assistance with overheads etc. The idea is that as startups navigate their way through the choppy waters of their nascent beginnings they will in time accelerate and gain future more substantial investment thereby stimulating wider job creation. We need to foster a more inspired and prosperous can-do Irish society in which everyone is empowered to define their future and maximize their impact.


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3. Adding Value to Green Branding

Ireland has long been known for its clean unspoiled natural environment. This concept rewards organizations that uphold that ideal. Inspired by environmentally conscious brands such as ‘The Body Shop” and RTE’s renewable energy show “Eco Eye”

the aim is to increase visibility, profitability and customer loyalty for brands that are positively changing our planet.

Caring for our planet, our community and building a sustainable environmentally inspired culture is not an option, it’s the only possible solution in our time. The idea is to collaborate the resources of multiple advertising, marketing and digital agencies and choose five outstanding environmentally conscious Irish companies that are creating extraordinary change. The combined agencies will work with the environmentally conscious businesses at no cost on sustainable branding, revamping their website and creating a future digital strategy.


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4. The Seniors Apprentice

Give a man a chance he’s heard for a day, teach him how to take that chance and he potentially changes the world. A problem of inequality in this world means that not all voices are treated equally. Great ideas are often generated from unexpected people and places but are never brought to life because of a lack of resources and being heard. I’m sure there are many retired entrepreneurs out there that are only willing to “give back to society” by sharing their knowledge and expertise with budding businessmen and women. Who better to ask for advice in challenging economic times than a generation that have witnessed, survived and triumphed through several cycles of recession.

Taking inspiration from Irish entrepreneur Fergal Quinn’s successful RTE television show “Retail Therapy” the idea is to summon retired experts from different professions and use them as mentors for the next generation.

They will go around listening, inspiring and advising young people on their ideas to help them turn their ideas into reality. The ultimate aim of the program is to create the future business leaders of Ireland that will be molded by the ethical code of their predecessors, which together with exciting fresh ideas will make this country a better place to live. Who knows maybe somewhere in this country there is someone with ideas for better way of recycling, more efficient way to run our state institutions or a more efficient means of utilizing our natural resources?


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5. Grow-planting the Seeds of Fresh Food

One of the strongest natural resources we posses is our clean largely unspoiled natural environment. It allows our farmers produce the highest quality fruit and vegetables. Yet why does so much of our fruit and veg consumption originate in foreign countries.

I believe it is time to take our food consumption out of the hands of international supermarket retailers and back into the hands of our local producers.

The idea is to create a philanthropic foundation, called Grow, to help sustain and ultimately expand local farm markets across Ireland. Through Facebook farm markets would apply for micro-grants of five thousand euro that would require a local matching fund. The grants would assist farmer markets in thriving and being sustainable. Once the winners is chosen the organization would travel across Ireland awarding winning grants by hosting promotional farm to fork event party’s, cooking up Irish inspired recipes with locally grown ingredients. This process would help the Irish farmer, help Irish produce and Irish jobs by creating awareness of the high quality food that exists in our own back yards.


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6. The Digital Farmers Market

Following on from the previous inspiration,

what if the local farmers markets were to incorporate technology to propel their products forward.

It is true to say that in many cases the public does not support local markets not because of undervaluing the fresh products but simply out of inconvenience. It is understandable why most of the general public prefers to shop on a one-stop basis where parking is easily accessible. To counter act this, the farmers market needs to mobilize and modernize by offering points of contact through social media, where the public can log on to a Facebook page, view and purchase produce online. It would aid market business and reputation by having customer recommendations visible on the page. It would also make sense if producers in farmers markets pooled their resources by offering home delivery service to customers. By stressing the advantage of locally grown fresh produce and by making the shopping experience easier and more convenient for the customer, the life of the farmers market should endure and prosper well into the future.


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7. Entrepreneurial Match.com

In a similar fashion as match.com pairs individuals with similar tastes, hobbies and preferences, I would like to create a website that matches entrepreneurs with the people who have the skills to make their vision a reality.

Just as online dating the site would use skills/personality/education profiles to help form a start-up team of individuals with complementary skills, e.g. project manager, idea man, engineer, marketer etc. Anyone who has been unfortunate enough to be entangled in the web of a below par recruitment agency or process, knows how frustrating being matched to the right job can be. In this instance companies would either pay an up front fee or choose to pay the site back for the service with a percentage of future revenue. Its time Ireland used its undoubted ingenuity and started to create some standout indigenous businesses.


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8. The Digital Restaurant

While on a recent holiday in Reykjavik, Iceland I visited a restaurant where all of the wait staff were taking customer orders equipped with I-pads.

I thought it was a pretty novel idea and a good example of how technology can improve business efficiency and reduce waste. It also brought me to thinking about the limitless possibilities the tablet computer places, quite literally, in the hands of the customer.

Consider the situation where you enter an internationally themed restaurant where the entire menu is written in a foreign language, which is unintelligible to you. With the aid of the tablet, a menu could switch to whatever language you wish to speak and then back to the language the waiter or waitress speaks after you select your item. It would be beneficial to the visually impaired allowing them to adjust the menus font size to suit their needs. This is just one of a variety of applications that could be employed. If the restaurant used fresh organic ingredients there could be interesting facts of how and where the raw materials are sourced. If there was a particular renowned chef that makes the restaurant great then there could be a montage of his/her best work and the particular methods they employ. The restaurant could allow patrons to individually customize their menu selection, creating combinations to suit their taste. Tablets are becoming less expensive and smaller in size making them a cost efficient solution for even the smallest sized restaurant.


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9. Safe-Home Phone Application

If you are going out tonight, it is likely you have already decided, who you’re going to meet, what clothes you’re going to wear and which restaurant or bar you’ll visit, but have you given any thought as to how you might get home afterwards?

Safe-Home is a 365/24 hr. day designated driver themed phone application.

Once downloaded the app allows a person to choose reliable friends from their Facebook contact list. The friend then either accepts or rejects the pledge to be a designated driver. If he/she accepts the request the sender will reciprocate by becoming their designate so as to return the favor at a future date. The application starts working as soon as the first friend accepts the pledge, up until that point the app would offer a taxi contact numbers relative to the persons GPS location. Once the ‘Safeways’ app is activated, it sends an alert to the contact list such as “Michael is on a night out tonight, turn on your ring tone and be ready to pick him up, if he’s unable to drive home”. When the individual has reached their fill they press the “ready to go home” tab, whereupon an SMS is sent to the designated drivers list alerting them that the person is ready to go home and that they need to call to make sure they’re ok to drive or if stranded they need to come pick you up.


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10. Facebook Family Tree

The recently launched Facebook timeline has allowed users to display their life events in chronological order.

This idea takes the power of the social network by allowing it to create a personalized family tree.

By harnessing the power of Facebook friends list, users can input their family details, find and highlight family members already using the network. Facebook will then display this information in a family tree style diagram, which the user can choose to show to others or add to the tree if they wish. I believe this would be a useful tool for people from other countries who are interested in researching and finding their Irish roots.


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11. Digitally Aware Politicians

This idea places the power of politics firmly back in the hands of the people and not the ideologies to which Irish party politics attach themselves.

After witnessing the Arab spring uprising of 2011, there is little doubt that political institutions of the western world are soon to be transformed by the Internet and social media.

Instead of being fearful and intimidated by the potential power of social media on politics why not embrace it. Social media outlets such as Twitter have shown that people have a strong desire to have their voice heard.

My suggestion takes inspiration from the Irish council of state, which is a representative body that advises the president on certain political and constitutional issues.

It is made up of representatives from various, not necessarily political, walks of life. Due to the proliferation of the Internet into the everyday lives of the public, it is necessary to politically facilitate its use in line with public opinion. The idea would be to create a social media cabinet seat which would be an office made up of technology experts from various IT fields. This a-political draft of representatives would act as a service to the country like the military or jury duty, involving a lengthy selection process. Its role would be to communicate policies and legislation with the public in a clear and direct manner as well as listening to the voice of the people on various issues. Public commentary would then be aggregated in order to gauge opinion on various issues.


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12. Thinking to Buy Irish

This idea places the power of politics firmly back in the hands of the people and not the ideologies to which Irish party politics attach themselves.

In April 2012 as part of a television campaign to support Irish jobs RTE’s ‘The Consumer Show’ launched ‘Think Irish’. The initiative was to highlight the number of Irish goods available to consumers, and also the power that their spending can harness. The idea behind THINK IRISH was a very simple- ‘a sign post that makes it easier for consumers to find and buy Irish made products’ in retail outlets.

While the idea behind this concept is a very simple, potentially high impact one, I believe its impact would have greater resonance with the adoption of a few simple digitally inspired strategies. As well as the ‘think Irish’ signposts in retail supermarkets, what if every Irish product was individually labeled on a customers bill receipt. By constructing a ‘Think Irish’ phone application every time a customer swipes the receipt, similar to a QR code, the Irish products are aggregated whereupon the customer receives a number of value points. By collecting a prescribed number of value points the customer is then entitled to a percentage discount on Irish products or is entered into some form of promotional offer, which could be redeemed at any retail outlet. There is little doubt that the potential impact, of this campaign in terms of revenue and job creation is huge but it requires a sustained momentum and innovative ideas to make it appealing for the everyday customer. We need to stress that every consumer has the power to make shopping choices that can impact both their own budgets and the Irish economy at large.


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12. Thinking to Buy Irish

Food has become big business. We in this country are in a fortunate position to have access to an almost unlimited amount of fresh fruit and veg. It is a national natural resource, which is too often unfertilized. However most of the fruit and vegetables that supply retail chains and restaurants are imported. If we are to reward farmers and suppliers for the quality of their produce, this needs to change.

This idea takes inspiration from the ‘Truly Irish’ range of pork based products, which is manufactured and produced by a collective of farmers in the Munster region.

What if there was a national association of fresh fruit and vegetable suppliers where each member had to pass an intensive and rigorous series of quality standards before gaining entry. Having passed the standards, the supplier is entitled to trade under the associations members badge, ‘the Green Leaf badge’, similar to that awarded to a blue flag beach. Each producer will be entered into a website of suppliers, detailing their history and background, production standards and methods. Every restaurant that uses a green leaf supplier will be promoted on the website and will be rewarded for loyalty. Green leaf badges will be displayed on participating restaurants as a symbol of their quality and commitment to high standards.


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14. POP Up Restaurants

If we are to promote the quality of Irish food produce as a marketable resource then it requires collective input not only from suppliers and producers but also from everyone involved in the selling of Irish food produce.

The idea is to make the quality of our food a marketable tourist attraction.

An example would be to create a series of pop up restaurants, during the summer tourist season, worked by Irish chefs using solely Irish supplies and produce. It would be a traveling road show of Irish food popping up at unexpected locations throughout the country.


II. Art, Craft & Culture


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15. Tell Us Your Story Children

We Irish are a nation of storytellers. The storytellers website and app will enable children to develop their creative thinking and writing abilities. The process of constructing a fully developed original story with accompanying illustrations will give kids an appreciation of the skills necessary to develop solid story structures and create engaging characters for literature comic books and movies.

Taking inspiration from Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia and other such spectacular adventures,

kids will be walked through the process of developing a detailed fantasy world populated by an original cast of characters. The end result will be an original short fantasy story along with accompanying illustrations, maps and character drawings that will be published to a storytellers website where the author can enjoy the benefit of social media and broader public recognition.


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16. Helping to Put Pen to Paper

Original authors voices are a commodity that can’t be manufactured or outsourced. The years of hard work, dedication and sacrifice that novelists devote to their craft should be justly rewarded. In the current publishing world this doesn’t happen, most novelist live below the poverty level, its time to change this model.

The development of e-books has meant that the publishing industry has become democratized like never before.

We are witnessing the balance of power swinging away from the large publishing houses in favor of the individual creative writer. The plan is to create a literacy agency that would place heavy emphasis on screenplay adaptation, rights acquisition along with print and e-book publication. Books would be digitally promoted before they are sold to big publishing houses via social media including short film previews of upcoming books content. The audience’s response would be used as a leveraging tool to ensure authors receive contracts and compensation packages favorable to them. The company will scout for talent quickly and aggressively hopefully bringing Ireland’s undiscovered artists to the largest global audience possible.


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17. Customizable Artwork

Who says that art is simply the preserve of the elite. The modern day proliferation of urban and graffiti art has meant that art has become more accessible to the public than ever before.

Developing the notion that art is for everyone, the goal of this idea is that more people have art in their lives. Curate contemporary and emerging art from around the world and allow customers to customize it to their own individual taste using a specialized software technology. Like an “Instagram” for art with just a simple few clicks, a work would be resized, repositioned, rotated, re-colored and the one of a kind creation would then be printed on canvas and delivered straight to the customers door. By making it easy for anyone to customize, co-create and share derivative art creations, passive consumers are transformed into active creative customers. For the emerging and mid career artist it would offer easy access to large market and opportunity to profit from past works as well as visibility and promotion.


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18. Transforming Dublin’s Trash to Treasure

This concept turns one mans art into treasure by transforming junk and cast away material into an educational resource. In the midst of our economic recession Art programs continue to suffer. Now more than ever, creative thinking and the arts are essential to tap into the freedom that is experienced through self-expression. Many people who are in difficult life situations find relief and a pleasure outlet in art.

This idea is inspired by the fact that all cities provide a supply of cast off material, which is worthless to most people and costs money to bring to landfill sites.

The idea is to turn junk into art, decorative furnishings and fashion accessories from which the proceeds can support art education for kids. It would utilize unoccupied office/warehouse space, provide employment for artists and teachers, reduce some of our cities landfill waste as well as planting the seeds of creativity and sustainability, through art education in the minds of our youth.


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19. Free Roaming Theatre

It has been a disappointing fact of our recessionary times that one of the areas to suffer most in terms of funding is that of arts and culture.

Just at a time when we need to foster a culture of creativity and innovation the government appears to believe that cultural investment is, at present, surplus to requirements.

This idea is to create a free live traveling theatre made up from the best theatre companies in the country. The traveling road show will visit many smaller provincial towns providing a winter season of free live theatre for the community. This will allow people of all socio and economic backgrounds the opportunity to experience the art of live performance. Productions could be a mixture of classic plays as well as original works from previously undiscovered artists. The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the arts in local communities as well as to inspire others to pursue their interests in the theatrical arts. It will also help to inspire young people to realize that in spite of their rural location a career in the performance arts is not unattainable with some of Ireland’s more notable cultural ambassadors having grown up in remote areas.


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20. Urban Canvas

It has been a disappointing fact of our recessionary times that one of the areas to suffer most in terms of funding is that of arts and culture.

While a recent holiday to Reykjavik, Iceland I became fascinated by the aesthetic quality of the city.

It is comprised of numerous brightly colored dwellings, some art deco styled buildings as well as the latest in cutting edge modern design, all of which seemed to blend seamlessly to form a unique structural collage that doesn’t follow any prescribed plan. What was particularly interesting was the amount of street artwork that adorned the urban landscape. This artwork, although bold and imposing, was not tacky or garish, showing a youth and vibrancy to the city.

This idea was inspired by the Dulux ‘Lets Colour’ paint project (http://www.letscolourproject.com/) whose motto is ‘adding colour to peoples lives’.

The company donates liters of paint to worthy urban renewal projects all over the world. In a similar fashion my idea is to regenerate derelict or decrepit urban buildings by allowing local street artists use the abandoned buildings as a canvas from which to project their work. Members of the public could be brought on board by creating a social media competition allowing them to submit their ideas, which could then be recreated by the street artists.

This idea would turn a grey decaying wasteland into a colorful urban gallery allowing local artist hone their skills and display their talents.


III. Youth & Education


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21. Audio Education

My inspiration for this idea is my nephew who is fifteen years old and this year sat his junior certificate.

He is dyslexic and so obviously has considerable difficulty when it comes to languages and complex academic material. I volunteered to assist him in his revision work for the impending exams. Although much has improved in today’s education system, which provides remedial and special needs assistance to those with learning difficulties, little or no progress has been made towards improving the tools by which these students are educated. Despite being a dyslexic with obvious reading difficulties, my nephew was nonetheless expected to read, learn by rote and reproduce material come exam day. I began to think that in the technology age of there must be a better way of allowing students with learning difficulties compete on a level playing field with others. It is a proven fact that the more of our senses that are stimulated, the easier we find it to learn. My idea is to have a leaving and junior cert application that helps students to revise academic material aurally. To demonstrate this I recorded all of my nephew’s exam notes into a Dictaphone, which helped his revision by allowing him to follow and match the words on the page to the sounds in his ears. I believe audio-based learning would assist every student not simply those with learning difficulties to retain a large amount of academic data. Although the results of the junior cert are not officially available yet, I hope by attaining good grades that my nephew will be a example of the merits of introducing an audio based student learning system.


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22. Life Choices Youth Education

This is a training program for young boys and girls 12-18 years old that would focus on how young people make positive and negative choices that may impact their future life course. The program would help to instill the tools and skills required for them to negotiate a positive outcome. We are all aware of the importance of attaining a strong education towards fulfilling ones potential. But because of the systematic nature of the modern day system, one has to ask what lessons for life does education pass on to our kids?

Taking inspiration from Australia’s Reach Foundation (http://www.reach.org.au/ established by Irishman Jim Stynes) this program aims not only to teach but also to listen to kids and help navigate them through an often difficult and bewildering time of life.

Just as those who have undergone drink driving rehab programs my idea is to have adults who have fallen into the pitfalls of addictions of various kind (alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling) speak to young people about how the choices they made have negatively impacted their lives and what they undertook to turn their lives around. In developing and implementing this program the idea is not simply to give back but to encourage a real outcome in the lives of our youth helping them to look at not only how they make decisions but to be aware of the consequences of their actions.


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23. The Digital Imaginarium

This idea takes inspiration from Coder dojo (coderdojo.com), which is an Irish non-for-profit movement that promotes free IT coding clubs for young people.

UCD’s Innovation Academy recently held the own “Dojo” which was attended by children as young as five and six, who came with their parents to start to learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more.

The idea is to create an after school studio for kids to develop skills in filmmaking, video game development, animation and app development. It would bring in professionals through TED talk style presentations and hands on classes. Kids would be given the opportunity to take the technology they already have at their fingertips and provide them with additional technology, software and education to bring their ideas to the next level of development. Imaginarium festivals could be held at the end of each school term where kids could display their ideas, animations, games or apps. A website could be established to allow them to promote their creations online. Scholarships could be provided for low-income youths so that all children have access to the program. A study curriculum could be established, which could be duplicated so that immagniriums could spread throughout the country. This idea would give kids the tools and knowledge so they could express their amazing creativity digitally.


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24. The Bigger Man Alcohol Campaign

We are all aware of the problems this country has with alcohol. It is stereotypical but nonetheless embarrassing to view our nations youth being depicted as drunken imbeciles particularly on an international stage.

Inspiration for this idea comes at a time when the government is seeking to reform Irish drinking practices.

Proposed measures include setting minimum alcohol prices and educating our youth on the pitfalls of over consumption. I propose an advertising campaign targeted at young males designed to make them think twice before becoming embroiled in alcohol-fuelled violence.

When a person is out on the town they want to have a good time, share a few drinks, meet a few people and have a good few stories to tell the next day. Unfortunately some people have an uncanny ability to turn a good night bad. To these confrontational people we introduce “the bigger man”- a new social concept that promotes the modern gentleman’s higher qualities of understanding, confidence and compassion. The bigger man will inspire men and women to choose the modern gentleman’s way of class instead of confrontation in the midst of volatile social situations. The idea is to diffuse tense situations before they accelerate, no matter how big the argument may seem it takes guts to step away and be the bigger man.


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25. Keep Kids In-Tune!

“If music be the food of love-play on”. Shakespeare believed that music was a journey on the road to beauty and truth. ‘Keep Kids In-Tune’ is an idea for a non-profit summer school youth academy that would serve to amplify the voices of young inner city males (10-18) through music.

This project seeks to thwart negative influences particularly in cities where youth violence and crime is most problematic.

It would encourage young men to find their voice and create their own positive destiny. The project would groom young men into gentleman of tomorrow by providing musical education, celebrity master class experiences, academic education resources internship opportunities team building excursions and periodical trips to musical events. Music can provide many opportunities in a person’s life. It is time to share those opportunities with our disadvantaged youth.


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26. Digital Career Guidance

Deciding which career to pursue is one of the most daunting prospects for anyone much less a seventeen year old.

For many students the Irish CAO system is a minefield, a game of “cover your eyes and point” at a college program that sounds promising and rolls off the tongue nicely.

In many cases the main point of concern is ‘where to go to college’ not ‘what to do in college’. As well as this because of the recession many young people are being forced into areas where future job prospects appear good, in spite of having no little insight or knowledge of these careers. If young people were aware of the huge variety of careers out there, then they would be most likely to pursue something they were genuinely interested in versus picking something that’s convenient or available? This idea is to create a robust website that will help secondary level kids and even those in college decide what careers they would like to pursue. This website would comprise of a number of different features including, job descriptions, common prerequisites, testimonials from professionals in these jobs as well as opportunities to contact these professionals via Q&A section. A career calculator would help people align the points structure and their natural curiosities with a shortlist of preferred careers. If there is little possibility of gaining direct entry into a chosen program the site would provide alternative approaches such as perhaps using an I.T diploma course as a starting ground. I believe that if created properly this website could help an entire generation of kids to choose careers that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Lets get people into jobs they were meant to have and dream to obtain.


IV. Charitable Giving


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27. Don’t Forget Your Shovels

This is a non-profit charitable organization that will help senior citizens living alone or disabled people living alone keep their properties, lawns and driveways cleaned and maintained during the year.

Inspiration from this idea came from RTE’s television show “Dirty Old Towns” which is a show hosted by Dermot Gavin based on charitable acts aimed at improving the quality of life in local communities.

There would be no direct employment in the scheme although people may wish to make donations at their own discretion. All work would be voluntarily donated through local community service group and second level students.


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28. The Do-Gooders!

Inspiration from this idea came from this years inaugural “Clonakilty Random Acts of Kindness Festival” (http://www.facebook.com/ClonakiltyRandomActsOfKindnessFestival. This festival is based on the premise that random acts of kindness can make all the difference in peoples lives.

The Do-Gooders project exists because sometimes a surprise collective effort is needed to right a wrong help someone through a hard time or make a neighborhood more attractive or safer for everyone to enjoy. Based on the concept of ‘strength in numbers’ the Do-Gooders operate like a flash mob of kindness, turn up, do the good deed and leave, never expecting or accepting a payment. The Do-Gooders will rely on the time effort skills and generosity of volunteers. It doesn’t matter what skills or resources individuals would bring to the team the beneficiaries or the community at large would appreciate every ounce of effort and support members would give them. The key to the success of the project would be public participation; a pro-active Do-Gooder is an involved Do-Gooder!


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29. Charitable Socializing

There is little doubt that in this country, rightly or wrongly, the pub is one of the main centers of our social sphere. Whether we are celebrating the success of a sporting event, enjoying family occasions or perhaps collectively drowning our sorrows, the local pub facilitates all our needs.

What if the local pub did more than merely facilitate but rewarded us for socializing? Taking inspiration from national charitable events such as RTE Telethon, where many fund-raising events take place in public houses,

I introduce to you the concept of charitable socializing-a charity owned pub where 100% of the profits go to charitable causes. Charitable socializing would change the way we look at charitable donations. Simply by having dinner and drinks you will help make your community a better place. One hundred percent of the profits would be taken and donated to charities that desperately need the funds.

If this notion seems alien consider the numerous black tie events that take place where individuals pay top dollar for a table or auction bid for meaningless merchandise. These people are essentially socializing in the name of charity, my idea is a more stripped down localized version of the same concept. Bringing charitable giving into day-to-day living would make it more convenient and fun for everyone and would allow more people to be involved.


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30. The Charitable Flash Mob

This idea takes inspiration form the speed of light concept (www.speedoflight2012.org.uk) which was a night time run to commemorate the London 2012 Olympic games.

Runners were clad in a specially designed light suits, which when activated by hundreds or runners resulted in an astonishing illuminating night time display. How about using this as an innovative charitable fund raising idea? For example a charitable nighttime “Light Run” from Dublin to Cork in aid of cancer research. The visually impressive spectacle would be sure to gain attention and support along the route as well as creating a positive symbol of hope for those afflicted with the condition.


Thank you.


irelands inspiration for tomorrow

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