A joint initiative, involving An Garda Síochána and the HSE Disability Services in Tipperary, has received international recognition in the 2024 Europol Excellence in Innovation Awards. 

The ‘Inside Out’ project in Tipperary Town aims to raise awareness of the impact of crime on vulnerable people, including people with disabilities and older persons.

Europol is the European Union agency for law enforcement co-operation. The Europol Excellence in Innovation Awards highlight how effective modern-day law enforcement requires partnership and collaboration. The awards demonstrate the positive impact of agencies working together, taking new and creative approaches.

Nine projects under three categories were shortlisted in the 2024 awards, with the Tipperary-based project winning in the ‘Innovation in Ethics, Diversity and Inclusion’ category.

Completed in 2021 and further supported by Tipperary County Council and the Tipperary Age-Friendly grouping, the ‘Inside Out’ project involved a number of stakeholders including students from the Transition Year programme in St Anne’s, St Ailbe’s, and the Abbey Secondary Schools in Tipperary Town. 

Des Bell, Tipperary Town Area Garda Inspector, and Anne Bradshaw, HSE Disability Services Officer, Tipperary, travelled to the Europol Headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands recently for the presentation of the awards.

Speaking about the project’s shortlisting, Anne explained that “the ‘Inside Out’ project came about due to concerns around people with disabilities and older people who have been victims of crime. Our handbook recounts and explores the impact of crime on its victim’s lives. The women we met in Limerick Prison were invited to explore the issues that led them to crime and to highlight its negative effect on their own lives. The women scripted a play, not offered as an explanation for committing crime, but to illustrate the often chaotic and stressful lives some of them lead.”

Anne continued to explain how “the HSE works closely with the Gardai in so many ways and we are especially pleased that such recognition has been afforded to the collaboration in this instance. It was an honour to be at the Awards Ceremony in The Hague, where we were delighted to be joined by the Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.”

A crime and disability awareness resource pack produced by the project also features a contribution from solicitor Kate Fleming of the LawEd education group, explaining the Irish legal system and setting out a summary of crime awareness. Hearing directly from the victims of crime, the students gained the perspective of women prisoners in Limerick Prison who outlined how they had got involved in behaviour that led to their imprisonment.  This gave the students a greater insight into the individual prisoners’ experiences.

Anne concluded that they hoped that “working on this project has helped all of those involved in a positive way and that ultimately it will help to bring about a safer environment for us all to live in.”