With the world growing ever smaller thanks to the technology we have – often glued to our hands – you would think that this means society has grown closer and stronger. However, that’s often not the case, with studies showing people often feel quite isolated and alone despite the ability to contact anyone at any time.
Luckily there are many people with clever ideas looking to help their communities, be it through helping protect their property, bringing people together either locally or globally, or using their experience to create new ways of supporting their local communities.
Property Marking Ireland
James O’Neill, founder of Property Marking Ireland, went back to college when he reached 40 and did a degree in rural development. “Out of that, I started to work with an organisation called Muintir na Tíre, who are focused on crime prevention, and there we set up a national text alert programme for stolen property, with about 1600 communities participating.”
As O’Neill worked closely with Gardaí, he noticed that while they were able to recover 28-30 per cent of all stolen property but only able to return around four per cent to owners because there was no unique marking on the items, so they were unidentifiable. “At the time, there was a big hullabaloo about the Eircodes, which are a unique identifier for an address, and around the same time I met a retired police inspector from the UK who had a property marking machine, which could mark everything without damaging it.” From there, O’Neill got the idea to adapt the machine to suit what he wanted, and Property Marking Ireland was born.
Property Marketing Ireland has three objectives: reduce property crime, reduce fear of crime with a focus on ageing demographics, and strengthen the partnership between communities and Gardaí nationally. “Against the backdrop of the last recession – a lot of small Garda stations closed down and people weren’t connecting,” says O’Neill.
O’Neill carried out a pilot programme in the Cavan/Monaghan Garda division, with Carol Lamb’s support in the local authority. “The programme is a combined strategy of marking property with Eircode and erecting signs saying, ‘beware property marking in operation’.” Shortly after the introduction of the scheme, the chief superintendent said there had been a reduction of 87 per cent in property crime in Monaghan.
After the success of the pilot scheme, O’Neill started to replicate what PMI did in Monaghan to other communities. “Local authorities came on board, purchased the machines, and funded us to give training in their communities. We were also supported by the Gardaí, Local Authorities, and the Department of Justice, from which PMI has received €350,000 in funding for three years from 2022.”
In 2019, O’Neill applied to Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (SEI) for funding and support. “What’s wonderful about SEI is in answering specific questions you are brought through everything. We were one of five national awardees in 2019, with a grant of €20,000, which was brilliant, but the support that came with it was possibly more valuable.”
Active Connections
Active Connections is a social care company that operates and uses outdoor activities to engage with people with different needs. There are two primary services – New Trails and the Ember Camps, says Ray Burke, founder, Active Connections.
“New Trails is Ireland’s largest outdoor therapeutic service; we support 40-50 young people per week that are experiencing emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. In 2012 we developed the New Trails service as we saw lots of kids falling through the cracks in the social services sectors.
“We developed an alternative that focuses on the bonds built between the key worker and their participant. This approach leans into the strengths of many young people, engaging their energies in a positive way, it allows them to build their confidence, become more aware of their ability and grow their future pathways.”
The Ember Camps is an alternative to in-home respite care for people with additional needs, says Burke. “In our interactions with families, they shared that traditional home care can often be inconsistent. We developed a weekend-based service that families can bring their young people to. There they engage in fun, social and safe outdoor activities. Each year we support up to 500 people on our weekly and school holiday camps. We are growing these services, and our goal is that we cover Munster and Leinster in 10 years.”
In 2014, we set aside some time and explored who could help us to achieve our goals to grow our solution, says Burke. “We applied (to SEI) and were shortlisted to attend a boot camp. We travelled to Dublin and entered a room full of amazing organisations and instantly felt overwhelmed and that we did not belong. We underwent an interview process and won. This win was financial, but it was also much more.
“It was a message that we and our solution did belong, and that SEI who meet every high potential solution in the country also believe in us and our programme. This message of belief is something that we still feel on a weekly basis.”
Through SEI, Active Connections has also made fabulous connections with other organisations who they engage with regularly, says Burke. “These relationships have helped us to navigate growth, development and many other aspects.”
Before Active Connections’ involvement with SEI, they were only focused on the day-to-day operations. “SEI was critical in our growth, they helped us look at our business process, our impact and our ability to scale our solution, which I’m sure was like pulling teeth for the SEI team.
“In 2014, the year we won the Elevate award with SEI, we had two staff, and we supported 40 people per year. In 2024, we will support 700 people and have a wonderful staff team of 46 impact-driven awesome people, but we are not done yet. By 2026 we will support 1000 people per year and will use many of the principals developed with SEI to get us there.”
Grow Remote
Grow Remote is an organisation started in 2018 because rural communities were dying, says founder Tracy Keogh. “It’s very hard to stop because they were in a self-perpetuating downward cycle, and we felt that remote work could support our local community. Not many people know that there are 84,000 decent remote [roles] in big careers advertised globally, which people in rural communities could apply for and get.” It was this opportunity – and issue – that Keogh saw to grasp and solve.
“We were voluntary for two years in 17 countries, and just before the pandemic we secured SEI funding and now have a team of 12 dedicated to solving the problem of remote work.” Grow Remote has empowered and directly supported 250 communities, and 1,450 people, and works with companies such as Shopify, eBay, Hubspot and GloFox.
When Keogh went to SEI, she knew she was addressing a problem and that her solution was massively taking off, but she was running 80 communities across Ireland, with a full-time job and no team. “By the time I got to them I was all over the place. Their support was fundamental. Meeting other social entrepreneurs was so crucial to everything else we did.”
Grow Remote wouldn’t exist if they didn’t get SEI support, says Keogh. “They support the entrepreneur first and then the business. You’re overworked and underpaid for a long time. What you’re doing is not just a job because you’re solving a problem. The value of being able to go to them with any problem is unmatched. There were a couple of times I went with issues, and they’d put me in touch with someone who had had a similar experience and was able to understand and support me.”