Loreto Secondary School Balbriggan awarded LIFT Ireland Flag

LIFT co-founders, CEO, Joanne Hession and fashion designer and entrepreneur, Sonya Lennon presented the flag at a special ceremony in the school.

LIFT stands for “Leading Ireland’s Future Together” and is a not-for-profit initiative aimed at increasing the level of positive leadership capabilities. It does this through its group learning programme and volunteer facilitator network.

Each week, for a total of eight weeks, a certified facilitator guides a roundtable of four to six individuals through a specific leadership value.

LIFT’s leadership values are listening, positive attitude, respect, competence, dedication and determination, empathy and understanding, accountability, honesty & integrity.

To date, over thirty thousand people have gone through the LIFT programme including individuals, schools, corporates and not-for-profits.

Loreto were chosen for a LIFT Flag because of how they delivered the programme to students and staff and their dedication to leadership within the school environment.

In 2019, the school became one of the first schools in Ireland to use LIFT when it was introduced by teacher Aisling Lennon.

Principal, Ann Marie McDonough, the teachers and students have since embraced the programme.

Initially, LIFT was introduced to the teachers along with a pilot scheme for a small group of students.

Twenty teachers trained as facilitators and delivered the programme to another forty-five teachers from the Loreto teaching staff.

In 2020, LIFT produced a booklet for students. Sixty-seven fifth year students trained as facilitators and delivered LIFT to the rest of fifth year.

The following year, another sixty-seven fifth year students trained as facilitators and delivered LIFT to 147 second year students. All the students that participated gave up one lunchtime per week to take part in the programme.

Loreto Balbriggan aims to continue to use the LIFT programme to develop the leadership abilities of students so that they realise their potential and use their talents for the service of others.

The following quotes are from two students of Loretto about the LIFT programme: “I have been able to realise my mistakes and move on from and fix them.”

“I am more confident and understanding towards others."

To find out more about LIFT visit their website www.liftireland.ie