Dublin Port awarded the 2015 ESPO award on Societal Integration of Ports

The Port of Dublin has been awarded this year’s ESPO Award on Societal Integration of Ports in recognition of his strategies in making schools and universities aware of their local port and its activities. The award was established in 2009 to promote innovative projects of port authorities that improve societal integration of ports, especially with the city and wider community in which they are located.
The theme of this year’s ESPO Award was Engagement with local schools and universities. Dublin Port Company won the 2015 Award for its project, Port Communities Educational Support Programme, which helps increase employment options within the disadvantaged communities that provided the port’s workforce in the past. The programme includes Early Learning Initiatives, Technology in schools, Scholarships Programme and support to sport teams. The educational programme is a response to when port communities in Dublin have been impoverished by the great reduction in employment opportunities caused by the industrialisation of cargo handling beginning in the 1960’s with the growth of unitised freight.