YSI Activate: turn a social issue into a working project

Editorial overview

Young Social Innovators runs Activate as a social innovation programme in which young people identify a social issue and take action on it. That makes the programme more demanding, and more useful, than a classroom exercise built around proposing a good idea. The team has to notice a genuine need, investigate it without reducing it to a slogan, decide what can be changed within a school-year project, and learn from what happens when the idea meets other people.

CompeteMap's view is that Activate is especially valuable for students who want a reason to connect research, teamwork and public communication. Its burden is continuity rather than technical specialism: a promising first meeting is easy, while sustained action, credible evidence and honest reflection take organisation. Schools should enter because they can protect time for the work and give students ownership, not simply because the closing presentation looks attractive.

Quick Facts

For current dates, eligibility and registration details, see the Young Social Innovators Activate 2026/27 competition page.

This guide was checked on 23 September 2026.

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Review Evaluation

Rated Advanced. The challenge is sustaining original action across research, implementation, impact evidence, a detailed report and a confident Speak Out presentation.

The project only works when action changes

Activate asks teams to move from identifying a social issue through designing, testing and implementing an action. A weak project often stops one step early: students make a poster, hold an awareness day or publish a survey, then assume activity is the same as impact. A stronger team decides before work begins what it hopes will be different and what evidence could show movement.

That change does not have to be enormous. A revised school process, a better-used support resource, a small shift in participation or a practical prototype can all be meaningful if the team can explain the starting point, the intervention and the result. The most convincing projects usually have a narrow audience and a clear mechanism. “Improve wellbeing” is too loose; helping a defined group use a particular support at the moment it is needed is a project that can be tested.

The larger resource is staff attention: someone needs to help students keep momentum while leaving the decisions with them.

Treat impact as evidence, not decoration

The report carries most of the formal assessment, while Speak Out makes the team's understanding visible. Students should therefore keep a project record from the beginning rather than reconstructing the story at the end. Useful evidence includes brief notes from stakeholder conversations, versions of the idea, reasons for changing direction, participation figures where appropriate, and candid reflections on what did not work.

The published rubric gives weight to the social issue, innovation, sustainability, social cohesion, impact and reflection. Those categories reward connection. Research should shape the intervention; the intervention should produce evidence; and the evidence should change the team's judgement. A polished report that hides uncertainty is less persuasive than one that shows why a sensible decision was revised.

Speak Out is not a second report delivered aloud. It is the chance to make the project's logic memorable. Teams need a simple story: what they noticed, what they tried, what changed and what they would do next. Props and performance can help, but they should clarify that sequence rather than compete with it.

Build the team around roles

A social-action team needs different kinds of contribution. One student may be comfortable interviewing people, another may organise evidence, another may design a prototype, and another may make the presentation coherent. Dividing work by strength is sensible, but every member should understand the whole project. If only one student can explain the research or the results, the work has not become shared.

A useful early exercise is to separate decisions from tasks. Tasks can be allocated; decisions should be discussed. The team can assign one person to arrange a meeting, but it should agree together why that meeting matters and what it needs to learn. This keeps the project from turning into parallel pieces assembled just before submission.

Teachers are most helpful as editors of process. They can ask whether the evidence supports the claim, whether quieter voices have been heard and whether the plan is still realistic. They should resist supplying the “right” social issue or rescuing every delay. The programme's value comes partly from students discovering how much coordination meaningful action requires.

A proportionate school-year plan

Begin with listening. Spend the first phase defining the issue and speaking with people who experience it. The next phase should test the smallest credible version of the idea. Only after that test should the team scale, publicise or formalise its work. Leave enough time at the end to analyse evidence and write with distance.

A simple working rhythm is one short team check-in each week, a shared decision log and a monthly review of scope. At each review, ask three questions: what have we learned, what has changed, and what can we stop doing? Those questions protect the project from accumulating activities that no longer serve its purpose.

The best reason to choose Activate is not that every team will transform a community. It is that students can experience the full cycle of responsible initiative: listen, decide, act, measure and revise. That is a more substantial learning outcome than producing a persuasive idea that has never been tested.

Key Takeaways

• Choose one social issue that the team can investigate directly.
• Define the hoped-for change before planning activities.
• Keep evidence and reflection throughout the project, not only at the end.
• Use Speak Out to explain the project's logic rather than repeat the report.
• Protect student ownership while giving the team a reliable working rhythm.

Sources checked

• https://www.youngsocialinnovators.ie/programmes-initiatives/senior-programme
• https://www.youngsocialinnovators.ie/programmes-initiatives/senior-programme/senior-programme-content/
• https://www.youngsocialinnovators.ie/images/uploads/project/files/Activate_Rubric_2026_2027_(FINAL).docx_.pdf
• https://www.youngsocialinnovators.ie/images/uploads/project/files/_3_Wallplanner_26-27_(4)_(2)_1.pdf