Trainees who made outstanding contributions to the Tall Ships voyages organised in 2019 by the charity Sail Training Ireland in 2019 will be recognised at the Annual Awards Ceremony at the Mansion House, courtesy of the Lord Mayor Paul McAuliffe today.
The award winners were among the 421 trainees who sailed on Tall Ships from Ireland and across Europe last year. Since 2011, some 2,400 young people from all backgrounds and abilities have availed of the opportunities provided by Sail Training Ireland (STI) to participate in training and self-development programmes. These are designed to offer a change in direction, perspective, attitude, and behaviour leading to self-confidence, motivation and the acquisition of new skills.
Trainees include young people from residential care homes, Garda Diversion Projects, Youth and Community groups and Schools, drug rehabilitation programmes, asylum seekers and young people with visual, hearing and physical impairments from across Ireland. STI was recently a runner-up in The Charity Impact Awards in recognition of the 129 trainees with a disability that participated in 2019.
The highlights of STI’s programmes in 2020 will include:
- The second running of the ‘Asgard Armada Voyage’, which will see three ships sailing in convoy with over 50 trainees onboard.
- 30 young people from Dublin’s North-East inner-city participating as part of the Taoiseach’s taskforce NEIC project.
- Regional sail training schemes (funded programmes) in Drogheda, Cork, Dublin, Belfast, Waterford and Derry.
- As part of the Ability Voyage project, several wheelchair users will go onboard the Tall Ship ‘Tenacious’, a ship built specifically to cater to those with disabilities.
- STI will be involved, once again, with “The Voyage”, an initiative between the Cities of Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool which includes voyages between the three cities and celebrates the historical, cultural and maritime links between them. These voyages also benefit from E.U. Erasmus+ funding.
Dublin City Council and Dublin Port Company continue to support the charity and build on the legacy of the Tall Ships Regatta 2018.
