St Brigids 5th Class take on the boardroom in Byrne Wallace

Tuesday the 24th of March saw the final week of Solas Business with 5th Class students from St Brigids Primary school.  Over the previous 4 weeks, four teams had been working hard with their mentors from Byrne Wallace to come up with a business idea, from concept all the way to creating a pitch for the board room. Last week, the girls headed into the boardroom in Byrne Wallace to face the 'Dragons'.  

The pressure increased as the girls took turns formally presenting their business proposals to Catherine Guy, the Managing Partner, along with two other 'Dragons' who scrutinized and queried their ideas to lay down the final judgement as to which team's proposal reigned supreme. In the end the group that developed "Secret Me" was chosen as the winner!

 The idea behind Secret Me is to provide a way for women to be fashionable and yet safe with a' thief proof bag' that can only be opened by the owner's finger print via a hi-tech finger scanner. The girl's also added that the bags could be personalized with different colored and designed straps. Great idea ladies!

 Secret Me will move on to face the winners from the other schools participating in Solas Business in the big final on May 15th. 

 A special thank you to all the mentors at Byrne Wallace who helped the girls develop their business plans for four weeks leading up to the final!

Solas Business is part of our Solas @ School programme teaching young people life skills while encouraging creativity and entrepreneurship.

 

Jumpzone Step Up Trip

Over 50 of our Step Up Crew (teen mentoring) headed out to  http://www.jumpzone.ie/santry/  last night for some well deserved fun. 

Some very energetic relay races, dodgeball matches all made up for a really fun night out for both our mentors & our young people.

Coming up to the end of each term, we love to take the Step Up gang out somewhere fun to reward them for all their hard work & commitment over the term. For many of them, next term brings some challenges with the Junior and Leaving Cert exams looming at the end of June so we are delighted to be able to provide a night off!

A big thank you to all our dedicated, caring mentors who volunteer their time so freely. We couldn't do this without you!

 

 

Volunteer Ireland Awards

It is with great pleasure Solas Project is announcing that one of our volunteers, Joan Wadsworth, has been short-listed for "Volunteer of the Year" at the Volunteer Ireland Awards taking place on Thursday December 4th in Dublin City Hall. Joan has  been an After School Club volunteer for the last few years however her commitment to Solas Project does not stop there. She has tirelessly networked on our behalf and is always one of the first to volunteer to help at recruitment fairs or be a volunteer ambassador for us, taking many a new volunteer under her wings. Joan has been rightly recognised by Volunteer Ireland as an outstanding volunteer. Good luck on the night Joan!