'It's the yes not the dress' poster launch

Young Social Innovators (YSI) team 'It's the Yes Not the Dress' from Eureka Secondary School, Kells, officially launched their new collection of posters highlighting the importance of sexual consent last Friday as part of YSI week in the school which ran from 3rd to 7th April.

During YSI week, the team also organised a ' Eureka Talks' event where they spoke to senior students in the school about the importance of sexual consent and the prevalence of rape culture in society along with an outstanding performance of their Speakout.

They highlighted this very important topic in their local community by giving another one of their National Sexual Consent workshops to the students of St Ciaran's Community School in Kells. They were joined by the inspirational Ms Bernie D'arcy.

YSI week ended on a high with the official launch of their new collection of posters highlighting the importance of sexual consent regardless of gender, sexuality, relationship status or alcohol comsumption. They were joined by representatives from SAFE Ireland, Jigsaw Meath, Kells People's Resource Centre and Photographer Derek Speirs. The girls were commended for their superb presentation.

 

The girls look forward to launching their very own 'It’s the Yes Not the Dress' website in the coming months where they aim to educate the nation about the importance of sexual consent. This will be an invaluable  interactive teaching resource for all teachers and secondary school students throughout Ireland.

Following their success in the YSI competition in May 2016 where they were crowned the winners of the 'Making our World  Fair and Just' category, the project has grown from strength to strength. 

The girls have been working tirelessly on this project and they feel privileged to have had so many wonderful  opportunities since the project began in September 2015 such as being the only school in Ireland to be invited to government buildings by Minister Katherine Zappone and Noeline Blackwell, CEO Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, to launch the DRCC's #AskConsent campaign as part of International Women’s Day, speaking on national news stations RTE News, TV3 and Newstalk, featuring in the Irish Independent, giving sexual consent workshops in secondary schools and colleges throughout Ireland,  being invited to speak in UCC in June and Zeminar (Ireland's largest youth summit)  in the RDS in October to name but a few.